Active travel to and from school

There are so many reasons to encourage children to walk, scoot and ride to school. Our friends at Better Streets have written about six of them in this great article! Active transport for school trips is so good for mental and physical health. It reduces congestion and emissions. Families save time and money. Healthy transport habits can be established early, so children can ride on into adulthood and benefit from a lifetime of physical activity, better health and lower transport costs.

But above all, it is fun. Children love getting around by walking, scooting and riding. Especially with their friends.

But why do so few children travel actively to school in 2024?

In the 1980s, 75% of kids walked or rode to school. But after four decades of car-centric urban planning, that proportion has plummeted to 25%. Our governments stopped designing streets for people, and prioritised travel for large, fast cars instead.

This has had disgraceful public health consequences:

• Australian Teens rank 140 out of 146 of the least physically active nations on the planet. (The Lancet)
• 25% of Australian children and 67% of adults are overweight or obese (Diabetes Australia).
• Traffic violence is the leading cause of death among children and teens. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Traffic pollution causes 11000 deaths and 66,000 childhood asthma cases every year (Sydney Morning Herald).

There is good news!

Projects to make walking and cycling to school easier for more children, more often, are underway all across NSW.

Bicycle NSW has worked closely with the Western Sydney Health Alliance to develop Active Travel Plans for 6 schools in 6 council areas. These will identify barriers to active transport, map safe routes to school, recommend infrastructure improvements and create an action plan for councils and schools.

Other councils are jumping on board with Bicycle NSW Active Travel Plans, and we are trialing a Student Bicycle Education Program with several partner councils.

The future generation needs safe and healthy streets

Transport for NSW is also (finally!) getting active in school travel. There is $10million dedicated to school projects in the Get NSW Active program, and a separate project to trial a holistic program of behaviour change and education initiatives in 10 schools in 2025.

Continuous, shaded and generous footpaths, regular raised or signalised crossings and low vehicle speeds are essential ingredients of a ‘child-friendly’ city. When the infrastructure is right, kids jump on their bikes! At Bourke Street Public School in Redfern, 80% of kids walk or ride to school (Image: Simon Wood)

Unfortunately, the pace of change remains ridiculously slow. Better Streets advocate have calculated that it will take 320 years to achieve healthy, equitable streets with the current 0.2% budget allocation to active transport. This is 100 times below the 20% recommended by the UN. A paradigm shift is urgently needed in NSW to meet the active transport goals.