North Lincolnshire Council - School Travel Plans

School Travel Plans (STP) are now the main drive behind Safer Routes to School (SRTS) projects. The aim of a STP is to encourage parents and children to travel to school using sustainable transport. By creating a safer environment around schools, and on the routes into the school area, parents and children are able to feel safer when walking and cycling. This has a knock-on effect of encouraging more people to walk and cycle, rather than use their car on the school run. The Education Act 2006 put a duty on local council's to develop a sustainable school travel strategy and promote sustainable travel.

In 1986, 60 per cent of children walked to school and 16 per cent went by car. By 2002, around 50 per cent of journeys were on foot and nearly 33 per cent were by car. This has lead to congestion and pollution around schools and problems on the roads, with one in five car journeys at 8.50am taking children to school.

Reasons for this change include:

a dramatic growth in car ownership
a lifestyle changes
a greater choice of schools means more children travel further to school.

Within an STP scheme, a variety of initiatives can be developed that promote and encourage walking, cycling and other sustainable travel and at the same time discourage parents using their cars. Most of these are carried out by the school community, however some work on the highway along routes to school may come out of the plan. These range from very minor, basic improvements to larger scale measures depending on the sites and routes children use.

The most important part of any STP is that the whole school community including children, parents, staff, governors and local residents are involved in its development. If they all have ownership of the plan it is more likely that the initiatives will work and the plan be effective.

A school travel plan needs to include:

A description of the school.
A description of the travel/transport problems faced by the school.
A survey of how all pupils travel to and from school and how they would prefer to travel.
Clearly defined objectives and targets that the school wishes to achieve. These should be linked to the survey and consultation with the school community.
An action plan showing how the objectives will be achieved. This should include a timetable and the individuals, groups and organisations responsible.
Who was consulted. Evidence will need to show how and when the consultations took place.
Monitoring and review of the plan.
How the capital grant will be spent.
The plan will need to be signed off by the headteacher and chair of governors.

There are some ideas below that any school community can use. These can help reduce the number of cars on the school run and manage parking more effectively, either within the STP or at any other time.

For advice and information about developing STPs please contact the STP Advisor, Bob Bareham, on 01724 296677 or email bob.bareham@northlincs.gov.uk.

STP initiatives

This information is aimed at giving you advice and guidance in dealing with issues related to parking around schools. It is not exhaustive but outlines the main areas that you may wish to consider to affect the levels and location of car parking at the beginning and end of the school day.

The council does not have the power or indeed time to deal with all perceived problems outside schools and the police also have limited resources to put into this area, therefore your own efforts are an important part in managing the use of cars at the school.

Please remember that we currently live with a car culture and freedom of choice in schooling means some children now travel from a much wider area. Removing all the vehicles taking children to school is therefore an unrealistic target.

The fact that cars are parked does not necessarily mean there is a parking problem. It is only a problem if the parking is illegal or causing a danger to pedestrian movement. It is, however, regarded as important to reduce the number of vehicles making the school run as this is now seen as a major contributor to congestion on the roads, environmental pollution and a hindrance to a child's development as a road user.

Walking or cycling rather than using the car has a number of benefits:

Cheaper - cold engines use more fuel
Better for the car - short journeys/cold engines are not good for the engine
Environment - short journeys/cold engines produce more air pollution
Healthier - walking provides much need exercise
Road safety education - children learn to use the road as a pedestrian under a parent's supervision.

You should also refer to your copy of: A Safer Journey to School - a guide to school travel plans for parents, teachers and governors published by the DfCS&F.

Walk to school campaigns

Regional campaigns are currently run by the council's Road Safety team each autumn. However, local top-up campaigns by individual schools are a good way of maintaining momentum.

Ensure that children understand the issues and are 'on board' - their influence on parents is important
Create an image that can go from one local campaign to another
Identify issues that prevent some people from walking and target these, for example, personal safety advice, safe route trails, pedestrian skills training
Walk to school campaigns do not mean that children should be walking alone. Parents should be encouraged to walk with their children - those that currently drive to school already accompany their children and should be encouraged to do so on foot.

Walking bus

These are escorted walking groups using parent volunteers to supervise the children along a particular route.

Recruit volunteers - enough to cover the routes you want to use, for absence/illness and for a safe ratio of adults to children. Carry out the appropriate checks on those volunteers
Plan the routes and times of the walking buses
Purchase high visibility clothing and appropriate trolley for carrying bags (your road safety officer should be able to help with suppliers)
Ensure you have parents' consent for their children to use the walking bus and obtain any necessary insurance
Volunteers should be trained - again the road safety officer should be able to advise
Consider a reward system for those taking part.

Car sharing schemes

Make sure parents and children are aware of what you are trying to achieve and why
Create communication between those that drive their children to school and pass on appropriate contact details to interested parents that live close to each other
You should leave actual arrangements and decisions to the families
Encourage involvement of new parents at induction events

Parking charter

These are aimed at managing the parking that is around the school site. Parents sign a charter promising to park in a defined way or place for the safety and benefit of the school community. Although this may not reduce the numbers of vehicles, it should put the onus on parents to behave in a particular way.

Identify safe and preferred locations and behaviour
Put this in written form
All those that drive their children to and from school should be encouraged to sign up to the charter
Where possible some form of sticker for the car window should be given to all those that sign. Parents are more likely to adhere to the charter if they have some visible indication that they have signed
Encourage involvement of new parents at induction events.

Site specific leaflet

This is a leaflet designed for and about a particular school site. Advice and information in the leaflet is specific to that site.

Identify issues that need to be addressed regarding the site. You might want to give general advice on areas such as use of seat belts - keep to a maximum of eight points in all and keep them realistic
Design a cover - try to make it identifiable with your school. You can use a photograph, logo, design by pupils
Print and distribute. Depending on the issues and available resources you may wish to distribute to the whole school or target a particular group
You may wish to seek advice from other agencies such as the local council or police.
These leaflets can be produced as part of a school project or involve the council's Road Safety team.

Publicity campaigns

These can be produced in school as part of a project or in conjunction with the Road Safety team.

Identify the issue you need to address and the target group
Keep the message simple and brief - be focused
Don't try to include lots of different ideas/messages at the same time
Decide on the form you want your publicity to take, for example, poster/leaflet/newsletter/drama etc.

Engineering solutions

Traffic Regulation Orders - in other words parking restrictions. These may prevent parking or waiting between certain hours of the day or at all times. The needs of the local community as a whole will be taken into account before any order is made. As they are legally enforceable the process that is required to make these orders takes around six months to complete and costs a considerable sum of public money. Putting parking restrictions in near a school will only be effective if the Police are willing to enforce them, and even then a problem may just move to a different location rather than solving it.
School Safety Zones - these are advisory and therefore not enforceable. They include a 20mph speed limit and no stopping within the zone at key times at the start and finish of the school day. The zones are high profile with signs at either end giving the times the zone is effective and are often accompanied by yellow flashing lights. Yellow zig-zag lines and other road markings are used throughout the zone. As the zone is advisory there must to be a high level of support from parents and residents before one can be created outside a school.
Traffic calming - a variety of methods aimed at slowing traffic. It may involve signs, lines on the road, reduction of the speed limit, speed humps or tables, islands, chicanes, pinch points or a number of other methods. These will only be applied; where appropriate as they affect traffic 24 hours a day; within a priority system; subject to available funding and enforcement agreement from the police. You should also bear in mind that a certain level of parking around a school at the start and end of the day can act as a temporary traffic calming measure. If you feel the area around your school may need new parking restrictions or other measures you should contact the council's Traffic team.

Enforcement solution

Where parking restrictions are being ignored or there is obstruction of the highway it is the police that are responsible for issuing parking tickets or reporting offenders
Putting in parking restrictions will not in itself solve a parking problem as any restrictions do need to be enforced. The co-operation of your local police officer is the first step in finding an enforcement solution to any parking problem, however you should bear in mind the police do have other priorities.

School policy

Within your school policy you can include school travel plans, expected behaviour from both parents and children with regard to how they travel to school and their behaviour in around the school grounds. Make sure parents are clear about what you are trying to achieve.
Issues such as driver behaviour, parking charters, car sharing, walking buses and any other policy issues to do with road safety can also be included in induction work with both children and parents.
A programme of road safety education integrated into the schools long term plan is an effective way of developing a child's knowledge and understanding as they mature. This work can be very flexible, is based in the national curriculum and can be developed to meet the needs of individual schools. The road safety officer is your first point of contact in establishing this work in your school plan.

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