For many families, school drop-off time is stressful. The fifteen-to-thirty minute window is a familiar scene: parents are rushing to get away to work, and children are distracted by the excitement of greeting their class-mates. There is the usual line of queuing cars, engines running, creeping forwards, or making three-point turns in the same space where children bounce balls and play unpredictably.
But since term resumed at Fort Street Public School in central Sydney, things have begun to look and sound different. You can hear children chatting, and birds singing, and the leaves rustling in the ancient fig trees on Observatory Hill.
After two years of well-documented concerns about the safety risks on Upper Fort Street, Transport for NSW and City of Sydney have made the very welcome decision to remove cars from the school during drop-off and pick-up times.
Children are now walking to morning registration without having to share the space with cars. Sydney finally has its very first School Street.
Recent changes to car access to Watsons Road and Upper Fort Street means children can walk to Fort Street Public School, independently and safely (Image: Bicycle NSW)
What is a School Street?
The UK’s School Streets Initiative defines a School Street as a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic.
School streets reduce car traffic and encourage active travel to school. This creates an environment that is less polluted and safer for everyone. By walking, wheeling or cycling to and from school, children benefit from the increase in physical activity levels. Also, active school travel fosters independence, enhances spatial awareness, and has been linked to improved academic performance and mental health outcomes.
School Streets are said to have begun in Bolzano, Italy, in 1989. And the concept soon gained traction globally, becoming a key focus for urban planners trying to design spaces that prioritise people.
In Paris, Mayor Anne Higaldo has delivered more than 300 school streets. They are a significant element of the city’s efforts to transform itself from car-dominated, congested and polluted to clean, green and bikeable.
Many of Paris’s Rue-aux-Écoles have been fully pedestrianised and enhanced with greenery to mitigate climate change (Image: Melissa and Chris Bruntlett)
A 2022 count of School Streets in the UK recorded over 650 of them. An Australian research project, Learning to Walk Again, reports the impressive benefits of school streets in the UK from a number of studies. A 30% increase in children walking to school. 18% fewer parents driving to school. 23% less NO2 pollution. People often resist any change to their streets or travel habits, but once the dust has settled, 81% of parents say they support the scheme.
These School Streets measures have often started as trials, allowing adults and children to experience the re-balance of space, before offering feedback and supporting permanent changes.
There is no exact recipe for design. The first step is usually the installation of infrastructure to beautify the space and provide places to sit and play. It could be that the streets are landscaped and planted with vegetation, or a ping-pong table is set up, and games are chalked into the tarmac.
Streetfilms has made fantastic videos about School Streets in London, Paris, New York and Ghent. These short films showcase some of the different approaches to creating safer streets for riding, scooting and walking to school.
The campaign at Fort Street Public School
Fort Street Public School’s front gates are located next to the southern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Cycleway. Bicycle NSW has long lobbied for improved walking and cycling infrastructure here.
The situation became untenable as the school grew. Children and carers had to navigate a constrained road environment with a congested mix of morning bike commuters and two-way vehicle traffic queuing to enter and leave the drop-off zone in the school playground.
Pre-February 2026: Moving cars, commuting cyclists and small children mix on Upper Fort Street (Image: Bicycle NSW)
A concerted effort to do something better before the start of the 2026 academic year saw key stakeholders collaborating to address overlapping safety issues.
Not only has the poorly conceived car drop-off area inside the school playground been closed. Conflict between people walking and cycling on the narrow shared user ramp down to Kent Street has been greatly reduced by directing students arriving on foot through the shady National Trust grounds. And the entire approach from Argyll St via Watsons Road and Upper Fort Street has been blocked to vehicles for two-and-a-half hours a day.
These steps mark a significant win for active travel.
Mel Tait, a parent of three children at Fort Street and a key figure behind the campaign, provided some background to how change came about:
“The school recently underwent an extensive renovation and expansion to accommodate the growing number of children in the catchment. When the campus re-opened in February 2024, many parents and local residents were shocked by the obviously dangerous interactions between cars, bikes and pedestrians.
“The most shocking things for me were the cars entering the playground at drop off and pick up, and the shared cycleway ramp forcing commuting cyclists to share with small children.”
Mel Tait at the gates to Fort Street Public School, where an increasing number of bike riding parents park up after using the separated cycleways in the City of Sydney to reach school. In the background is the school playground - now full of kids playing before school but formerly a tense drop-off area managed by traffic controllers (Image: Bicycle NSW)
“The situation was so dangerous it needed two traffic controllers and two safety marshals to manage the interactions. For a CBD-based school, with only 300 kids, that's an appalling use of taxpayer money - all because of poor design and lack of separated infrastructure.
“It was also incredibly stressful for our teachers to have to worry about keeping kids off a significant portion of play space so it could be used by a relatively small number of cars twice a day.”
Now the situation is different. Parents still have the option to drive, but they park 200 metres from the school in newly marked bays on Argyll Street, leaving children to walk the final stretch independently.
“It seems like a small thing, but being able to walk to school with my 3 kids and their friends without worrying about them around cars totally changes the dynamic,” says Mel Tait, local resident, parent and community campaigner. “Travelling to school is so much more relaxing and enjoyable.” (Image: Bicycle NSW)
“It wasn't easy to get these changes.”
This successful campaign at Fort Street was made possible by a number of individuals and organisations.
“I'd like to extend a big thank you to organisations like Bicycle NSW and WalkSydney for championing active transport,” says Mel. “To the City of Sydney, Schools Infrastructure NSW and Transport for NSW for working together and to our wonderful Principal Michele Peel-Yates for never giving up.
“Finally, recognition needs to go to Alex Greenwich MP for his incredible leadership in bringing all the stakeholders together to discuss the issue and potential solutions.”
Would you like a School Street near you?
The UK-based Schools Streets Initiative has pulled together a brilliant set of steps to achieve change. From building momentum and making a case, to the technical details and inspiration from existing examples, find out how you can create your own School Street.
Become a Bicycle NSW Member to help to make streets safer for kids
Bicycle NSW is involved with several projects to encourage active school journeys. We have helped develop Active Travel Plans for schools in Western Sydney, and we are trialling the Bicycle NSW Student Bicycle Education Program with several partner councils.
Head to the Active travel to and from school campaign page for links, resources and articles about walking and riding to school.
