A review of active travel to school programs by the Australian Greenhouse Office noted that there had been a 75 per cent drop in the number of children walking and cycling to school since 1970.
~ Meiklejohn D. & Bagnati L. (2013) School travel planning an engineer will love: using audits and surveys to identify capital works priorities Papers of the Australasian Transport Research Forum Brisbane.
Not only is it good for their growing bodies it is also really important for their learning and development.
Road safety is a vital skill for everyone – from young children to adolescents getting their P-plates. But road sense is not something you just ‘get’ automatically. More importantly it is not something you can develop from the back seat of a car.
By walking scooting riding or skating to school kids learn the important foundational skills that will allow them to independently and safely get around.
Other great benefits kids get from active transport include:
-
learning where things are in their local neighbourhood
-
having the opportunity to walk with their friends
-
being more alert and ready to learn when they get to school
-
improved safety as there are more ‘eyes on the street’ during pick up and drop off times
-
safer school zones as there are less cars on the road and less cars reversing and parking.
Tips for active travel to school
-
Teach your children road safety and navigation skills by walking with them around the neighbourhood – practice on weekends when roads are quieter and you have more time.
-
Drive just part of the way to school and drop your child 500m away so that your child can walk the remainder.
-
Pack bags and make lunches the night before to give your children enough time to walk or ride in the morning.
-
Talk to other parents in your neighbourhood about taking turns to walk young children to and from school.
-
Organise older kids into buddy groups who can walk together without adult supervision.
Our active travel maps
View our active travel map series:
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information provided on these maps is accurate however if you find an error please contact us.