As a parent I’m not sure why I should be worrying about a School Travel Plan….
It cannot have passed your notice that the number of cars on the road has increased dramatically over past 20 years. The negative impacts of excessive levels of traffic are also well publicised, and include: the health effects of car emissions; the effects on the environment (both local and global) of burning large amounts of fossil fuels and the economic cost to the country of traffic congestion.
What you may not know is exactly how much the ‘school run’ contributes to these problems. Between 1985 and 2003 the percentage of primary aged children being driven to school rose from around a quarter of pupils to well over a third – with far fewer children walking and cycling to school as a result. A similar pattern also exists for secondary pupils.
As a result 1 in 5 of all cars on the road at the peak school run time (around 8:50am) are involved with dropping pupils off at school – hence the quiet roads in the holidays!
However it is not just the direct effect of cars that are causing concerns, there are also the ‘side effects’ of our dependency on this mode of transport – for example:
Exercise: It is estimated that around a third of all boys and girls do not receive the recommended level of exercise on a daily basis. This has lead to an increase in the incidence of obesity, as well as other conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. The reduction in children walking or cycling to school is almost certainly partly to blame for these problems.
Road Traffic Accidents: Traffic injuries are one of the leading causes of death amongst the under 16s in the UK – our record is the second worst amongst Western European countries. However it is not just pedestrians that are being killed – around a fifth of the children injured on our roads last year were passengers in cars.
Impact of Emissions on Health: Pollution from cars represents a growing health problem. There have been steep rises in the level of asthma over the past 20 years, with research pointing to children growing up in areas of high traffic being particularly at risk. School gates are particularly notorious traps for pollutants as parents often leave their engine running as they pick up or drop off their children. Research also suggests that children who are passengers in cars during stationary traffic may be exposed to pollution levels of up to two or three times that faced by a moving pedestrian or cyclist.
Lack of Road Skills: As the trend for independent travel has reduced so has the opportunity for pupils to engage in social interaction on the way to school, and to gain vital road safety experience. 11 and 12 year old boys are disproportionately represented in pedestrian casualty figures partly because they do not gain enough experience in primary schools to ready them for their trip to secondary school. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that pupils who walk or cycle to school have a higher level of concentration in their morning lessons.
Financial Cost of Transport: Ferrying your child to and from school by car is far from cheap, as im sure drivers will know. The internet bank Egg puts forward the following figures – ‘The average annual cost for a household doing the school run is £402 per year – a total cost of £1.66 billion. Petrol accounts for almost 80% of costs as parents pay over £3,000 on fuel over the “school run” life of their child. 331,000 vehicles are likely to be damaged this year as parents take their children to and from school.’ Click here for the full story.
