Schools slow to develop travel plans
By CANDICE REED

Monday, 06 November 2006


News Features Headlines



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013899.php>
. Tackling traffic problems at the school gate



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013900.php>
. Schools slow to develop travel plans



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013901.php>
. These feet were made for walking



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013902.php>
. Free buses for city kids would help



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013904.php>
. Congestion impacting on driver behaviour



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/11/art100013905.php>
. Outside the school gate ......



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/08/art100013001.php>
. Kiwis choose good health over indulgences



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/08/art100012920.php>
. Media not only factor in body image debate



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/04/art100011231.php>
. The last "good" war: World War II NZ involvement: 1939-1945



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/04/art100011232.php>
. The forgotten war: The Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation NZ
involvement: 1965-1966



<http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/news_features/2006/04/art100011233.php>
. The ongoing war: VietnamNZ involvement: 1965-1972

. Howick and Pakuranga Times

TRAFFIC outside schools remains congested 18 months after an initiative
launch to reduce the number of cars travelling to and from schools.




Only two local schools have established a School Travel Plan, which aims
to give children a wider choice on how they get to and from school, and
six schools have established walking school buses.

Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) figures show there are 10
walking bus routes in Howick and Pakuranga involving a total of 173
children. This has removed 57 cars from the roads resulting in more than
40,000 fewer car trips to and from schools per year. (Figures are based
on each car making four trips each day). These buck national trends,
which claim the programme is already achieving more than 20 per cent of
the 10-year Regional Land Transport Strategy (RLTS) target of 12,600
fewer car trips.

Figures from RLTS show over 3000 children walk to school through 180
Walking School Buses operating across 87 schools and by June 100 schools
had developed or were developing School Travel Plans. Only two of the
131 Auckland wide schools are from the local community, Willowbank
Primary and Baverstock Oaks.

ARTA school travel coordinator Debbie Lang says while the schools are
still in early stages of establishing a plan, progress is going well to
reduce the number of car trips to and from school gates.

Both have conducted surveys of parents and students, asking them a range
of questions on preferred transport options.

"We ask them how they get to school, why they drive (if they do) and
what the parent's barriers are to walking, for example safety concerns,"
Ms Lang adds.
The next stage is to establish a working committee of parents to develop
a plan to make walking routes safer and to offer other environmentally
friends transport options.

Some $1.5m was allocated over two years for the travel plans as part of
the Auckland sustainable cities programme.

Nearly a year and a half later, council has not identified the school
travel plans as a priority for any other school in the area. One school
in Manurewa will establish a plan next year.

Manukau city traffic engineer Bruce Conaghan says council is looking at
all options to reduce the traffic congestion, but says much of the
responsibility falls with parents.

"Parents have a huge role to play in the road safety surrounding
schools," he says. "Some need to realise there is no need to drop their
child off right outside the gate. If they need to drop them off a bit
down the road and the child has to walk 100 metres then so be it."

Reduced speed zones and drop off limits could also be enforced, but this
would be a city wide rollout says Mr Conaghan.

School traffic congestion will always be a problem, he says, but work to
break down the barriers parents have to alternative transport modes. "It
was part and parcel in my generation that you walked to school, it was
the norm, now parents have stepped away from that and drop their
children off at the school gates," he says.

ARTA sustainable transport manager Anna Percy says travel planners work
with schools to reduce the number of students dropped off by car, nearly
double than 10 years ago.



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