BETTER WAYS TO GET TO SCHOOL

This article summarises Transport 2000's new guide, A Safer Journey to School. It is a practical guide to school travel plans for parents, teachers, and school governors. It describes examples of initiatives from around the UK to increase walking, cycling, and the use of public transport for school travel. It was launched at the National Safe Routes to School conference in June 1999, together with a local authority best practice guide produced by Sustrans. These two publications are intended to be complementary, because school travel initiatives are very much joint collaborative projects between schools and local authorities. A school may take the lead in consulting children and parents about their journeys, raise awareness, introduce new policies, and set up schemes such as pedestrian and cyclist training, and it usually works closely with road safety officers. The local highway authority is responsible for reducing speeds in the school area, and making the roads physically safer for children. A key question is how far schools, keen to set up travel plans, find their local authorities willing to cooperate. Government guidance on local transport plans shows local authorities what they are expected to do. The Government has also established a national School Travel Advisory Group (STAG). KW: SR2S Language: en