Sustrans have developed a street design toolkit, to help people make the roads around their schools safer and healthier
The school run. Whether you live along it, your commute passes it, or you participate every morning, you’ll know that the school run is one of the busiest times of the day for traffic and congestion. Whilst most families living very close to school choose to walk, research shows that amongst families with primary school children, 78% choose the car for school run trips between 1 and 2 miles.
Of course, little legs may take a while to walk 2 miles – but with school run hours being some of the worst for children’s exposure to harmful air pollution, as well as some of the most common times for car accidents, something needs to change. Perhaps it’s possible to walk to school once a week? Maybe parents could take turns leading a walking bus, or is there a safe route to cycle? This benefits the school children as well as the local area. As reported by Sustrans “Teachers find that pupils who cycle, walk or scoot arrive at school more relaxed, alert and ready to start the day than those who travel by car.”
But it’s not just about children and families travelling to school in different ways; schools themselves have a part to play. Below are a range of resources which support schools to run campaigns, support families, and include sustainable travel in the curriculum.
Sustrans have developed a street design toolkit, to help people make the roads around their schools safer and healthier
Reduce traffic outside your school during drop off and pick up times by introducing a School Street. Possible have lots of useful background reading and tips on what you can do and if you are inspired to create your own School Street, visit the Leeds City Council website for more information on how to make it a reality.
Explore the resources and workshops available for schools from Leeds City Council’s Influencing Travel Behaviour Team
Check out the Climate Curriculum resources, and teacher training available from Leeds DEC – these will support your school to embed sustainability into the curriculum
Walking charity Living Streets offer fantastic resources for Walk to School Week, plus their year round ‘walk once a week’ or WOW initiative – an interactive challenge which encourages pupils to travel actively to school
Make a pledge for Cycle to School Week and you can receive a personal activity pack or teaching and promotional pack for schools, thanks to the Bikeability Trust
We love to connect people who want to make Leeds a better place for travel. Perhaps we can help you find the right community organisation, councillor or hear from you if you have questions, comments, suggestions of resources for our directory.
