New initiative aiming to change way pupils travel to their schools

WITH fewer children walking to school and more being driven across the city, Cardiff council has launched an initiative to change the way pupils travel.

Cardiff’s School Active Travel Plan programme was launched this week at Howardian Primary School in Penylan, supported by Sustrans Cymru and Welsh Cycling.

The plan provides advice and support to all schools in Cardiff so that they can develop an Active Travel Plan specific to their school and is part of the council’s commitment to ensure every school in Cardiff has developed an Active Travel Plan by 2022.

Schools can get council officer support and online guidance and resources to help change the travel behaviour of their pupils and look at why parents are using their cars.

It will help schools to promote walking, cycling and scooting as a way of travelling to and from schools in the city.

Councillor Caro Wild, cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said: “The council has recently launched its 10-year transport vision for the city, which sets out ambitious plans to transform active travel and public transport in Cardiff.

“This vision sets out clear aims to reduce congestion, improve air quality and combat the ongoing problems of climate change.

“The daily morning and afternoon school run places heavy pressures on our road network, adding to peak-time congestion.

“The numbers of children walking to school has decreased over the last 15 years while the proportion travelling by car has increased.

“We are working with all schools in Cardiff so that each school can develop a plan which is specific to their location and setting.

“This is not a case of ‘one size fits all’. We want to take a bespoke approach. This means firstly helping each school we work with to identify their key issues and the barriers to children travelling actively.

“We’ll then help the school to commit to taking some simple actions to help children walk and cycle to school.”

He stressed he didn’t want the Active Travel Plan to be a document but a set of live actions.

“We’ll provide support with developing the Active Travel Plan and providing activities such as cycle and pedestrian training through our road safety education team.

“With funding from the Welsh Government, we have also begun to instal covered cycle and scooter parking in schools and, with continued funding, we want to expand this provision to other schools who need new or improved cycle and scooter parking.”

Cardiff council has been working with Howardian Primary School on developing its Active Travel Plan and the school now implements several projects which include increased scooter use and parking, scooter and bike training and a “Park and Stride” where parents park away from the school gates.

Headteacher Helen Hoyle said: “By developing our own Active Travel Plan we hope that traffic congestion around the school will decrease and the roads will become safer and less polluted for everyone.”

Staff at the school will have cycle training in the spring and Sustrans Cymru has also helped Howardian develop schemes to promote walking and cycling among pupils.

Steve Brooks from Sustrans said: “The tailored approach of the programme will play a key role in changing the way people travel around the city, help clean up the air and reduce our impact on the climate emergency.”