Conference: Key Partners for School Travel Plans

Cambridge 15th October 2002

 Various county councils and companies were represented among the delegates at this conference at Fitzwilliam College. As far as I know, only one school was represented, surely the most important partners for the development of school travel plans.

Jonathan Parker of Integrated Transport Planning Ltd gave the opening address in which he spoke about changes in school travel: 59% of pupils walked to school in 1986, 49% in 1997 and 2001, 16% of pupils were driven to school in 1986, 29% in 1997, falling slightly in 2001. Surprisingly, the percentage of cars on urban roads taking children to school has fallen from 20% in 1997 to around 17% in 2001. JP also spoke about the development of school travel plans by the School Travel Advisory Group (STAG) which gives advice and guidance for specific sites.

Andi Stother, a former primary school teacher now working for the Camden and Islington Healthy Schools Scheme, spoke on the National Healthy School Standard (NHSS) and how this links in with school travel plans. It was good to know that the pupils themselves had been consulted on their ideas of what a healthy school is "I’d want to come to school", "Being involved in making decisions", etc. A number of NHSS themes have been developed, including a link with School Travel – pupils and staff encouraged to walk or cycle to school, with the school providing training on road safety supported by safe travel policies. Some ‘Healthy Schools’ have set up a Walking Bus, often on a limited basis to begin with (one route, one day per week) but hoping to expand. A Cycling Train is apparently more difficult to come by. (Why?)

Adam Rigarlsford, School Sports Co-ordinator, followed on nicely with Sport England’s targets for enhancing sporting opportunities for all school pupils, to ensure that 75% spend at least 2 hours per week on high quality PE and sports by 2006 (currently this is 1.5 hours in primary schools, one hour of which is often weather dependent!). Nationally, it is planned that the number of School Sports Co-ordinators will rise from the current 700 to more than 3000 by 2005, with enhanced facilities and coaching opportunities, along with targeting the local population to make fuller use of these. Opportunities for school travel co-ordinators to link to Sport and PE were identified.

Sarah Mendendez of Fishburn-Hedges, a communications consultant to the DTLR School Travel Campaign, spoke on the importance of the media and advertising in getting the health and safety messages across. In view of our own frequent involvements with the press and radio here in Norfolk, this speaker had much of interest to tell us. She came up with some startling statistics:

Experts recommend that adults should be physically active for at least half an hour on five or more days per week. Children and young people should aim for an hour a day.

This activity can be taken in short bouts of 10-15 minutes, making walking the ideal way to achieve recommended levels without big changes to lifestyle (source: Dept of Health)

Walking one mile in 20 mins uses as much energy as…..

Running a mile in 10 mins

Swimming breast stroke for 10 mins

Playing football for 12 mins

Cycling for 16 mins (seems like cycling is more strenuous – probably depends on quality of bike)

Doing aerobics for 16 mins

Weight training for 17 mins

Since 1985, the total distance walked on average has fallen by one fifth. Each person in the UK walks over 50 miles less per average per year than 15 years ago. (Source: National Travel Survey)

6 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women do not do the recommended ‘half an hour a day’ of physical activity. (Source: Health Survey for England 1998)

1 in 5 adults is now classed as obese. (Source: ‘Tackling Obesity in England’, National Audit Office, Feb 2000)

Levels of obesity in England have trebled in the last 20 years, from 8% of women and 6% of men in 1980, to 21% of women and 17% of men in 1998. (Source: as above)

Walking to school improves social life as well as health, for both children and their accompanying adults.

Walking to school can make children brighter and more alert. (Presumably the same can be said about cycling to school.)

It costs up to £300 per annum to drive a child to school every day. How many parents realise this?

Apparently people are more interested in their personal health issues in relation to travel modes than in environmental considerations. This sounds selfish but it does give an idea of the more effective approach. In targeting the media they recommend:

Use ‘Walk to School Week’ as a news ‘peg’

Target local newspapers, particularly children’s pages

Audit trade press attitudes to school travel issues

Arrange informal briefings for relevant trade press

Identify relevant and newsworthy case studies for use with all media

Offer interesting and relevant spokespeople for comment on topical issues

Use headlines like –

Walking to school can improve your social life

Teachers say walking makes kids ‘brighter’

Why we love the school bus

Kids want to want / cycle to school

Make your walk / bike ride to school a work out

Julie Windeler, Road Safety Officer with Halton, Greater Manchester, Borough Council was keen to encourage safer travel for primary aged pupils by bringing it into the National Curriculum, while involving the pupils in discussion and planning for a safer school environment, ie Junior Travel Plans. Using the National Curriculum is a great tool for getting things done, involving data analysis (mathematics), group discussion and written reporting (English), investigative skills (Science, History), developing plans and communicating ideas (Geography, IT, Design & Technology). Even role play (Drama) can be used, with pupils in groups acting as traffic engineers, road safety officers, teachers and local residents. A point system is used, each pupil starting the term with 100 points. These are lost or gained according to mode of transport used for each day’s journey to school, with suitable rewards for those finishing the term with highest points.

Hannah Moore, School Travel Plan Co-ordinator for Cambridgeshire County Council, spoke on school travel planning in Cambridge. Apparently 51% of pupils converge on the city centre each day from long distances, causing high levels of congestion. In 1998 the Cambridge Transport and Educational Establishments Partnership (CTEE) was formed to address this problem. They found that 86% of parents would like to give up the ‘school run’ if a suitable solution could be found. This resulted in the introduction of minibus shuttle services to groups of neighbouring schools from one of the park & ride sites on the outskirts of the city. A car-sharing scheme was also started. A commercial car-share scheme was found to be more reliable, with parents registering using a password. Both schemes are working well in Cambridge: 5 schools use their own minibuses to pick up pupils dropped off by parents at the park & ride site, transporting 80 pupils and teachers. 30 parents have signed up to the car-sharing scheme, registering directly with the website www.shareajourney.com (a Birmingham firm). Both ideas could surely be equally successful elsewhere, including Norwich.

Andrew Stuck, Project Manager of the Young TransNet internet project, introduced us to this website which allows young people, teachers and schools a say on transport issues. It is free for schools to use, simple enough for children to use, and gives data and reports which can be used as lesson material while allowing users to become Internet-fluent. Contact can be made via www.youngtransnet.org.uk

The two workshops I attended were given by Rhian Barnes of Sustrans on ‘Maintaining Walking Buses and Cycle Trains’ – it’s OK getting them started but keeping them going is another thing – and Ken Spence on ‘Engaging Traffic Engineers’ – that children and other vulnerable road users need more attention than has previously been given.

An excellent and worthwhile conference. Will some of the ideas disseminated be put into practice in Norwich?

Phyll Hardie