Overview

School Streets: Online Evaluation

Introduction

The School Streets trial started in June 2022, and we’d like to understand more about your experiences. This will help us design more sustainable travel schemes that encourage more walking, cycling and scooting for everyone. We want to look after our children’s health by allowing them to be more active, become fitter and establish healthier habits for life. By getting people out of cars we will improve the air quality for us all.

The Schemes

The schools involved in this trial volunteered to take part because they were concerned with the congestion caused by far too many families using cars for the school run. This was making the immediate area unsafe for pupils as well as causing pockets of air pollution which are known to damage children’s health.

Each of the schools recognised the benefits of more children travelling to school sustainably and therefore wanted to:

• Reduce the numbers of children being driven to school
• Reduce the number of cars at the school gates
• Reduce the pollution caused by these cars which was damaging their pupils’ health
• Get their pupils to become more active to improve their fitness and health
• Encourage more social interaction and fun on the journey to school

We’d like to know how the trials went for you…

The schools involved in the trial did a ‘Hands Up’ survey before and during the trial, so we know the numbers of children travelling by car, walking, cycling, or scooting, and how many families have left their cars behind for the school journey. We also did traffic counts on streets surrounding the School Streets before and during the closure.

As well as the numbers, we’d like the views of people affected by the trial so please have your say if:

• You are a parent/guardian
• You live on a School Street (one that’s been closed) or
• You live in the wider neighbourhood
• You are not in one of these categories but were still affected by the School Street