School Travel Plans
Darlington’s school children are leading the way in sustainable travel with more and more pupils travelling on foot or by bike. When asked, the most favoured mode by pupils is by bike and more schools in the borough are now having cycle storage installed on their sites. Every Primary school takes part in Medal Motion twice each year showing their commitment to promoting sustainable, healthy travel.
The Local Motion School Travel Plan Officer is Nick Butler and he is responsible for encouraging all schools to write a school travel plan and encourage more pupils to walk and cycle to school. As an added incentive for schools, completed school travel plans allow the schools to have access to a capital grant from the Department for Children Schools and Families, to spend on improvements to aid the implementation of their travel plan.
What is a school Travel Plan?
A school Travel Plan sets out to:
- Improve safety and the environment for walkers and cyclists
- Help encourage children and parents/guardians to walk and cycle or use a bus or car share
School Travel Trends in Darlington
In 2006, on average, 25% of Darlington’s school children indicated that their main method of travelling to and from school was by car as the only passenger. Whereas 11% of secondary school pupils travelled by car as the only passenger more than 32% of primary school children regularly travelled by car as the only passenger.
Walking is by far the most popular method of travelling to school – the average percentage of children who regularly walk is 56%. However, the number of children cycling regularly to school is 4% of all pupils (2.4% of secondary children and 1.7% of primary children).
The Future?
Although the number of schoolchildren walking to school regularly compares favourably to the number travelling by car, many car journeys to school are relatively short and could easily be undertaken by walking or cycling – it may not be possible for everyone to walk or cycle the whole journey but it may be possible to undertake part of the journey without a car (for example, park a short distance from school and walk the remaining distance). Congestion caused by cars taking children to school continues to grow, resulting in increased levels of pollution (research has shown that car passengers in slow-moving traffic face pollution levels inside a car significantly higher than those experienced by pedestrians).
By encouraging children to use sustainable travel we give them the best possible chance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Who is Working on a Travel Plan in Darlington?
Schools working on writing their Travel Plans are:
- Mowden Junior School
- Firthmoor Primary
- Hurworth Primary