School travel plans
Bedfordshire County Council aims to work with all schools to develop school travel plans which promote sustainable travel and improve levels of safety, health and fitness through reducing traffic and congestion. Central to the promotion of sustainable travel is raising awareness of the alternatives to travel by car through encouraging walking, cycling or taking public transport. In addition people need to be provided with the skills to travel independently (where appropriate), confidently and safely.
A school travel plan that meets the DfES national standard sets out a number of practical steps to help achieve this. It looks in detail at children's needs on the school journey and attempts to address them by finding the right solution for each individual school. A school travel plan also has clearly stated aims, objectives and targets that are achievable, measurable and are supported by the whole school, children, parents and the wider community.
It is a living document that becomes embedded into school life and policy.
Why school travel plans?
Over the past 20 years there have been big changes in the way that children travel to school. Car use has doubled, bus and train patronage have remained steady and the proportion of pupils walking or cycling has decreased sharply. Driving to school causes congestion especially in urban areas in term time nearly one in five cars at 8.50am is on the school run.
In September 2003, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Transport joined forces to launch the Travelling to School Initiative. Two documents were produced, An Action Plan describes what government thinks needs to be done to change the way children travel to school whilst A Good Practice Guide states which schools, local authorities and bus operators around the country have been doing to promote walking, cycling and public transport to combat increasing car use and improve safety.
This national initiative is further supported locally by Bedfordshire's five year Local Transport Plan and more specifically our School Travel Strategy. See below for further information.
Bedfordshire County Council proposes to work in partnership with schools and other organisations to achieve this. We will work with you to highlight the problems and find solutions. However, we can only do so if your school is committed and willing to take ownership of the plan.