BackCalls for vehicle exclusion zones
As pupils stride out for Walk to School Month this October, national pedestrian charity Living Streets is calling for a ban on car parking inside playgrounds and around the school gates, to encourage a safer environment for walking to school.
Over the past decade, the number of children who walk to school in Scotland has dropped from approximately 56% to 49%, with an enormous 28% being driven to school in cars. With children across Scotland participating in Walk to School Month this October, Living Streets is calling on schools and local authorities to implement car free zones around the school gates preventing parents from parking, dropping their children off or waiting in their cars. This would limit the amount of congestion and pollution around schools, and make it safer for children who won’t have to dash in between moving cars to get to their classrooms.
National charity Living Streets works to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets around the UK. They run the highly successful Walk to School campaign, which encourages over two million children, parents and teachers to give walking to school a go.
As it stands, around one in five cars on the road at peak time in the morning is on the school run and around the school gates the ever increasing numbers of cars poses a real danger to child pedestrians.
Living Streets recently presented its 2011 Scottish Parliament Manifesto to MSPs, in which it called for targets to be set to increase the number of children walking to school and the creation of park and stride points at least 10 minutes walk from the school gate with identified safe routes.
Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets said:
“We strongly believe an exclusion zone around schools is worthwhile for many reasons: it stops parents being stuck in congestion but also reduces the potential for collisions around the school gates.
“We would really like to see schools and local councils introduce and enforce parking and waiting restrictions and promote more ‘park and stride’ schemes to give children the chance to get some much needed fresh air and activity into their day whilst easing congestion around the school gates. This isn’t about making life difficult for parents but creating a safe and pleasant environment around the school, whilst helping children lead more active lifestyles in the face of rising obesity levels.
“Many schools and councils have attempted to tackle this problem. As pupils go back to school, it’s time to redouble our efforts. We need to take action now to make children more physically active, to prevent storing up health problems later in life”.
Thousands of Scottish pupils will this year be taking part in the largest regular walk to school reward scheme in the world, ‘Walk once a Week’ (WOW) Each year, the Living Streets’ WOW campaign gets more than 212,000 children across the UK to walk to school, with pupils recording how often they walk and winning a badge if they walk four times or more in a month.
For more information about the Walk to School Campaign and WoW scheme or find out more about setting up a car free zone outside your school, please visit www.walktoschool.org.uk.
For more information contact Anna Powell, Press and Communications Coordinator on 0207 377 4900 or email anna.powell@livingstreets.org.uk or Keith Irving, Scotland Manager on 0131 243 2645, keith.irving@livingstreets.org.uk. For any out of hours press enquiries, please call 07545 209865.
Notes to editors
• Source of figures: 28%- from Annual Sustrans Hands Up survey. 95%: Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics: 95% of households are within 5 minutes drive time of the nearest primary school and 70% of secondary schools. The average speed of journeys is 19.2 miles per hour in 2007-08. National Travel Survey - Scottish Results 2007/2008
• Living Street’s Walk to School Campaign is responsible for Walk to School Week in May, Walk to School Month in October and the Walk Once a Week (WoW) scheme. Visit www.walktoschool.org.uk for more information.
• To read A Manifesto for Living Streets across Scotland in 2011 visit http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/scotland/
About Living Streets
Living Streets is the national charity that stands up for pedestrians. With our supporters we work to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets, where people want to walk.
We have been the national voice for pedestrians throughout our 80 year history. In the early years, our campaigning led to the introduction of the driving test, pedestrian crossings and 30mph speed limits. Since then our ambition has grown. Today we influence decision makers nationally and locally, run successful projects to encourage people to walk, and provide specialist consultancy services to help reduce congestion and carbon emissions, improve public health, and make sure every community can enjoy vibrant streets and public spaces.
Our work in Scotland is funded by the Scottish Government.
Published on: 05/10/2010
