School travel
| Strategy | School Travel Plan Strategy |
|---|---|
| Status | Adopted 2005 |
| LTP Objectives | 4. Manage Congestion, 6. Make Travel Safer |
| Supporting Strategies | Network Management, Road Safety |
| Main Partners | Schools |
| Key Actions | Ongoing programme to achieve 100% coverage |
| Further Information | LTP Appendix K |
The national target is for all schools (including independent, special, nursery and pupil referral units) to have an approved travel plan in place by 2010, in other words during this LTP. In addition to this, our public involvement exercises identified school travel plans as a key way to tackle safety and congestion issues associated with 'school run' traffic, and as such this is an initiative widely supported by the public (see Appendix B). Our school travel strategy was adopted by the County Council in June 2005 and this details how we are already working to achieve this goal. By March 2005 we already had 78 approved travel plans in place and are well on track to achieving the national target. We expect that 96 schools will have completed travel plans by the end of this financial year.
Picture 13 Bedfordshire School Travel Plan programme logo
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A school travel plan has to meet the criteria set by Government to be approved. We carry out quality assurance checks on every school travel plan submitted to us, with some also checked by the Eastern Region School Travel Advisor, hosted by us. Approved travel plans for Local Education Authority schools receive a grant from Government to help deliver the plan and the number of approved school travel plans is in part a testament to the level of government investment. However, for the independent schools in Bedfordshire a different approach is required, and to this end our school travel advisors are already working with the larger independent schools in Bedford to achieve a change in travel patterns through the development of their travel plans.
Very effective mechanisms are in place to secure the delivery of successful school travel plans that encourage safe and sustainable travel behaviour for journeys to and from school. These are comprehensively detailed in our school travel plan strategy (included as Appendix K) which is in the highest national category for likelihood of meeting the objectives of the Government’s Travelling to School Initiative'. These mechanisms include the support from our school travel advisors throughout the development and delivery of each plan, and integration with the work of other agencies and organisations to support the process. This includes links with Bedfordshire Healthy Schools Scheme so that a walking bus or school travel plan can be an approved route to healthy schools accreditation. Other areas of integration include joint working with our school transport team to pilot the installation of CCTV on school contracts as part of a safer routes to schools project and the introduction of yellow school buses as part of the county transport fleet in January 2006. Other examples of integration include working with SUSTRANS to help link schools to the National Cycle Network and joint working with the Bedfordshire Rural Transport Partnership to support the implementation of walking buses in rural areas and 'park and stride’ schemes.
Picture 14 Bedfordshire Walking Bus logo
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A key target for this joint initiative is to set up 25 walking buses over the over the two years of the project, which was established in 2005. There are currently 11 walking buses active in Bedfordshire with five more planned and 22 more possibilities identified in school travel plans.
Picture 15 Walking bus
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We have recently introduced a new initiative in the form of the purchase of two Yellow School buses, and renting of two similar white ones. The 70 seater buses are the first large school buses in the County to have wheel chair access. They are also equipped with lap and diagonal seat belts and CCTV cameras. The buses have 4 trained and dedicated bus drivers employed directly by us who will work on the same routes everyday, the aim being that parents and children can get to know them.
The main role of the buses, which are initially operating in North and Mid Bedfordshire, is to transport children from home to school. The buses run along routes that other operators have surrendered and the aim is to improve standards and obtain better value for money for the Council. When the vehicles are not transporting children to/from school, the buses are also available for schools throughout Bedfordshire to book for use on trips, or for other organisations to hire outside of school times.
The Yellow buses are seen to be a flagship in the integrated transport initiative and offer an alternative to the private car subsequently aiming to reduce congestion. The buses are a symbol of safety for parents as they are equipped with plenty of safety equipment. Yellow buses can also help to reduce social exclusion by creating a secure environment for young people to travel and encouraging greater independence from their parents.
Picture 16 Bedfordshire's Yellow buses
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In order to deliver safe and sustainable travel choices to schools it is important to link to other policy areas of the County. With the revisions to our Cycling Strategy 'Cyclestand' a more flexible policy is now in place with regard to cycling to school. This cycling policy encourages schools to look at cycling to school within the context of a school travel plan to ensure that all of the correct mechanisms are in place to encourage safe cycling. This includes cycle training, secure cycle storage and clear guidance for parents. We have negotiated preferential rates for purchasers of cycle storage in Bedfordshire and we are now investigating the implications of moving over to the new national standard for cycle training as a more effective and appropriate mechanism for the delivery of cycle training in schools.
With school travel plans being required for all new and expanded schools there are also strong links to our Accessibility Strategy ensuring that there are safe and sustainable links from new developments to both new and existing sites. One example of this is the redevelopment of a hospital site at Fairfield site, the overall site design for which incorporated a network of safe walking and cycling routes ensuring that the proposed new lower school could benefit from the choices presented. With the application for planning permission for the new lower school, an interim travel plan was secured with a full travel plan being required upon occupation. It is anticipated that this mechanism will be used to secure travel choice for the journey to school for all future new developments in the County.
The Safer Routes to Schools (SRtS) programme remains the mechanism for the delivery of engineering measures at schools. The delivery of 'safer routes' is now a key component of the school travel plan and one possible outcome of a package of measures which delivers both engineering and educational initiatives together. One of the key outcomes of the SRtS programme has always been to reduce car use and it is therefore essential that maximum benefit is derived from this programme of improvements. Schools that benefit from the SRtS programme will be expected to have a school travel plan in place in order to qualify and this will be linked to a programme of prioritisation that identifies opportunities for linking to other key County Council target areas. These include areas of high child pedestrian casualties, areas of multiple deprivation and areas that offer additional opportunities for modal shift such as linking to local cycle networks.
In order to maximise opportunities for safer routes to schools improvements we have had considerable success in securing alternative funding through both the planning process and also through joint working with other organisations. Examples are particularly prevalent in Leighton Buzzard where schools have benefited from the Sustrans links to schools programme, contributions from the town council and also the improvement of links from new housing developments.