Council makes school travel safer for children

Increasing safety for children: Results from a recent study shows that child pedestrian and cycling crashes have significantly reduced.

From City Scene, published on 8 November, 2009.

TravelWise, the council's school travel plan programme, appears to have had a major effect on increasing safety for children.

Results from a recent study of 10 primary schools participating in the programme show that:

child pedestrian and cycling crashes have reduced by 48 per cent
total pedestrian and cycling crashes have reduced by 11 per cent
the percentage of children involved in all crashes has been reduced from 31 per cent to 18 per cent.

The study compared the four-year period the schools have been on the programme to the four years prior to starting the programme.

The programme, which has been running in Auckland city since 2004, currently has 63 schools participating. It is run in partnership with ARTA and school communities. The programme aims to increase road safety and reduce the reliance on car trips to schools. It does this by offering safe alternatives for travel through improved infrastructure and ongoing enforcement, education and encouragement.

"These results are very promising," says Councillor John Lister, deputy chairperson of the Transport Committee. "Children are extremely vulnerable on and around roads while travelling to and from school. The preliminary results show that it's safer for children because of school travel plans, and that's something we should all celebrate."

"These encouraging results give extra momentum to our road safety initiatives such as 40km/h zones around schools. These measures are effective, and have been welcomed by drivers, schools and the wider community."

TravelWise will continue at the current 63 schools in 2010, and eight new schools will be invited to participate. Find out more about the plans, and the council's efforts to increase road safety.

See the School launches road safety DVD story for information about another council-assisted school road safety initiative.