Plan to get more schoolkids walking
Years of traffic jam chaos outside Wellington schools may finally be coming to a head with a new councilled plan aimed at reducing congestion through improved parking and a focus on walking.
On Thursday, Wellington City Council voted in favour of converting several Newtown car parks into pick-up and drop-off zones during peak morning and afternoon pressure points.
However, councillor Iona Pannett said she ‘‘didn’t agree’’ that all the touted traffic resolutions would actually make school areas safer for children.
‘‘I actually think they perpetuate the slightly unsafe environments which are around. The reality is that if you are a 5-year-old child navigating an environment where there are many cars is actually not the safest for you. It just isn’t.’’
She said small amendments, like the newly approved drop-off zones, did little to address the underlying issue of children not walking to school.
‘‘This cycle is self-perpetuating because essentially parents go ‘it’s not safe to take my child to school because of all the traffic and because of predators’ and then they drive and create the problem, making it more unsafe for kids to walk and scooter.
‘‘Every time we do these amendments, I think it does make it that much more difficult to convince people that the norm should be walking to school.’’
Despite that, the council’s latest resident survey showed 53 per cent of under-13-year-olds walked to and from school every day, up from 26 per cent in 2013.
‘‘While a sterling effort from our staff and the school communities, it should be a lot higher,’’ Pannett said.
Ellen Blake, of walking advocacy group Living Streets Aotearoa, agreed that more needed to be done to encourage active transport options, particularly around the ‘‘niggly’’ Basin Reserve area.
‘‘It should be redesigned so it’s a child-friendly place. The three biggest colleges in Wellington are all around there so I definitely see it as an area that the Let’s Get Welly Moving plan should be focusing on and prioritising children.’’
Ministry of Education sector enablement and support deputy secretary Katrina Casey said while the organisation didn’t collect data on the number of children who walk, scooter or cycle to school, it did support the promotion of active and safe routes to schools.
‘‘Walking, scooting or cycling to school is a great start to the day for students and helps to reduce traffic congestion. A number of schools utilise NZTA’s Travel Wise programme [which] encourages students to cycle to school.’’
She said a number of schools and kura promoted walking and cycling to school through their own school board initiatives.
‘‘We work alongside other agencies to provide advice and support to school boards including walking and cycling to and from school. This includes providing links to resources and programmes provided from across the sector.’’
The most recent Ministry of Transport figures show that the number of 5 to 12-year-olds walking to school has decreased from 42 per cent in 1989 to 29 per cent in 2014.
Blake said while it was hard to get to the crux of the decline, safety concerns and confusion around the appropriate age to let children walk alone were key reasons.
In a Neighbourly poll of Wellington residents, more than half of respondents said they would let intermediate age children (10 to 12 years old) walk to school.
Blake said while it was hard to put an exact age on children walking alone or otherwise, schools and parents had a responsibility to teach correct practices as early as possible.
‘‘Definitely by the time you hit secondary school, you should be an independent traveller. People should be able to know how to use public transport, know how to walk safely. It’s the stuff you teach pre-schoolers.
‘‘The younger the child, the more supervision they require,’’ she said.
It was up to parents, schools and the council to work together to promote walking, and to discourage unnecessary driving and parking practices.