The key benefits of having a school travel plan:
The benefits of developing a Plan are enormous! Some of those benefits are outlined below:
Benefits for your School
- Helps to make the school more accessible in a safe, healthy and sustainable way.
- Reduced traffic congestion and pollution near and around the school
- Gives opportunities for sustainable travel to be built into the curriculum.
- A travel plan can help improve links with the school’s users and the local community.
- The school can use a school travel plan to help them gain Eco-schools and Healthy Schools’ status.
- If the plan is completed within a certain time scale the school may receive a grant to use in relation to their travel plan.
Benefits for Children
- Improved fitness of children by increasing their levels of walking and cycling
- Improved highway safety, education and awareness for children through Pedestrian and Cycling Training
- Improves the environment around the school for children to travel in.
- Improves health and fitness through increased levels of walking and cycling.
- Increases their knowledge of the area surrounding their school.
- Can improve behaviour on the school journey due to extra adult supervision through schemes such as walking buses.
- Can give the opportunity to children to directly influence their local community and make important decisions regarding changes.
Benefits for Parents
- Increased parent and child interaction
- May provide more time for parents to spend with their children on the journey to school.
- Reduces driving stress and improves journey quality.
- Allows parents to contribute to a school activity and also have an input in what happens in the school.
- Improves community awareness through working together.
- May make parents more aware of sustainable travel and start to use sustainable modes in more of their journeys.
- Can increase the parent’s daily activity and so improve their health and fitness.