Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

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Shaftesburymum
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Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Shaftesburymum » Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:09 am

For anyone interested in how commuting and travel has changed within the UK in the past year and how public space including road space would best be shared post-pandemic, an excellent nationwide report has been produced by four university based transport experts.

In conclusion the results come out in favour of better support and infrastructure for active travel in the future;
 We have seen a rise in the propensity to walk and also to cycle, even in conditions where every other form of travel has reduced. This suggests a switch in emphasis more profound than even the recent announcements on funding imply. Governments should rebalance their infrastructure investment goals to focus on high quality liveable neighbourhoods and safe routes to schools and town and city centres. These have the potential to benefit everyone. It can be delivered at pace and has the benefits of being labour intensive and therefore also supports job growth as well as public health. The nature of the work is also that it is also more accessible to smaller suppliers and local supply chains. Instead of pushing forward with a £27bn roads investment programme which is subject to challenge on its compliance with the Government’s climate goals, much of this money could be diverted to carbon reducing projects which deliver on health, safety and well-being benefits for all.

The full report is available to read here;
https://www.creds.ac.uk/wp-content/uplo ... report.pdf

I would love for Wandsworth to be a safe place for our children to walk or cycle to school. Not only would that be a great boon for their health and happiness but it would substantially reduce the number of days on which the children are inhaling illegal levels of air pollution. For the children who are inside of cars in slow moving traffic, the levels of air pollution they are inhaling are up to 140% higher than for the children walking or cycling, and many of the main road routes through Wandsworth regularly exceed legal pollution limits.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motori ... y-smoking/

Wandsworth Council has a plan in place to improve air quality, however actions to date have been woefully inadequate, and incredibly whilst they are notionally encouraging active travel to school and seeking to influence the travel choices that children and parent make, they have no plans to make active travel safer in terms of cycle infrastructure that takes the needs of children into account.

You can read about what their plan is, and progress reports here, as well as seeing the areas in Wandsworth where air pollution exceeds safe limits;
https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/media/734 ... t_2019.pdf
https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/media/215 ... __2021.pdf


If you would like to push for change, Mums for Lungs are doing great work!
https://www.mumsforlungs.org

If you have any ideas of what we could do locally to influence the council, please let me know!

Thanks



 
Last edited by Shaftesburymum on Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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HeB
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby HeB » Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:04 pm

Great initiative. More support for the school streets programme by the council would be great.
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Needcoffeenow
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Needcoffeenow » Mon Apr 19, 2021 6:49 am

Walking Buses were a big thing when our children were young. At the time it was calculated that one W bus at every London primary school would take around 45 miles of rush-hour traffic of the roads. The councils’ Road Safety Officers helped train the parent volunteers and insured them. Our children, previously driven to school, became fitter and much more willing to walk at weekends/during holidays. And statistically, children who are taught to walk safely to school at primary age are less likely to be knocked down when they start travelling on their own to secondary school.
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Kirstie’s Mom
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Kirstie’s Mom » Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:10 am

I think everyone would love safer streets but if this involves the return of the badly designed LTN’s then no thanks . LTNs were a disaster in our area and increased pollution and congestion. The wands are another misguided approach .
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Talkman
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Talkman » Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:11 am

Firstly I must disagree with KM about the wands. They help to keep cyclists of all ages and abilities safer from motor traffic. That is a different discussion though.
One of the main issues is traffic speed in built up areas and near schools.
The culprits aren’t just courier and delivery drivers or other work van drivers. A lot of them are parents, ferrying their precious offspring to school whilst putting the lives at risk of the equally precious kids using Shanks’s pony to reach their places of education. The School Streets initiative is great but drivers need educating too.
Broomwood Rd. Ramsden Rd. Balham Grove. Chestnut Grove, along with many neighbouring roads are, and have for many years been hellish places to walk or cycle at “school run” time.
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Guestmum
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Guestmum » Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:34 am

Wandsworth Living Streets campaigns for better streets, as does Tooting Healthy Streets. Please do look at some of the great work they do.
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Wandsworth Council
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Wandsworth Council » Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:15 pm

Dear HeB - thought you might be interested to learn that according to recent research by two leading environmental lobby and pressure groups - Wandsworth has the third highest number of School Street projects in inner London. 

Data collated jointly by campaign groups Mums for Lungs and the Healthy Streets coalition - a group of transport, health, road safety and environment campaigners – shows that Wandsworth has the eighth highest number of school streets across all 33 London boroughs and the City - meaning more parents and children in Wandsworth are able to enjoy traffic-free drop-offs and pick-ups outside the school gates. 

In inner London only Islington and Hackney have a greater number of these schemes which are designed to make the journeys to and from schools safer and quieter, while also helping to improve air quality.

The initiative sees the roads containing school entrances closed to vehicle traffic when pupils arrive in the mornings and leave in the afternoons.  Residents and businesses who live and work on a School Street are given access as are Blue Badge holders. Vehicles already parked there before the hours of operation come into effect can also leave without being penalised or impeded. The schemes do not operate in the school holidays or at weekends. 

School Streets are now in place at 19 primary schools across the borough with others in the pipeline. The list includes Albemarle, Hotham, Our Lady of Victories, Hillbrook, Penwortham, Earlsfield, Furzedown, Allfarthing, Broadwater, Sellincourt, Shaftesbury Park, Belleville Wix, Falconbrook, Granard, Honeywell, St Anselms, Sacred Heart (Battersea) and Westbridge.
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Shaftesburymum
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby Shaftesburymum » Tue May 04, 2021 9:01 pm

Drive to School.jpg
Dear Wandsworth Council,
 
Thank you for engaging in this discussion. I posted here in hope of finding some like-minded parents who might know better how to bring this topic to your attention.
 
Thanks also for implementing school streets in the borough in accordance with the government directive issued July 2020, Gear Change. A bold vision for cycling and walking’.
 
This followed TFLs guidance in June 2020 - 
to implement School Streets not only to encourage walking, scooting or cycling, improve air quality and reduce road danger outside schools, but also to provide additional space outside schools so that parents/carers can drop off and collect children while safely social distancing. 
 
Wandsworth has implemented 19 school streets (on a temporary basis) meaning  21% of children attending school in Wandsworth have a safer space directly outside of their school. This is a start, but still a low bar.
 
Have any of the additional recommendations been implemented? My experience of cycling with my primary-aged child to school is that the schools without school streets are typically crowded outside with cars at pick-up and drop off time, many with engines idling. Have any parking bays been removed, or any signs put up to discourage idling?
 
Bike/scooter sheds are still closed in many schools due to measures introduced to stop the spread of COVID, even though we now know that surface transmission is extremely rare and pick-up times are generally staggered. What advice has Wandsworth issued to schools on this matter? Are you asking schools to encourage active travel, knowing that there is an enormous net benefit to children both now and throughout their lives?
 
Healthy Streets note that benefits of school streets are:
 
  • reductions in motor traffic, congestion, and road danger around schools
  • reductions in motor traffic emissions contributing to climate change
  • reductions in noise pollution
  • reductions in inequality and poor health outcomes for those living in the most deprived areas who are less likely to have access to a car
  • improved air quality
  • increased physical activity levels and associated health benefits from physical activity
  • development of young people’s independence by allowing more children to walk or cycle at least part of their journey to school without their parents, helping to address the trend towards the increasing dependence of young people on their parents to travel
  • ability of people to physically distance.
If you, the council, support the outcomes noted then it follows that school streets alone are not enough. You must prioritise infrastructure that enables children to walk/scoot/cycle to school.
 
TfL awarded £3.2M for Local Implementation Plan (paper 15-352) which included £300K confirmed funding for cycle route improvements in 2015/16 (plus £300K proposed for 2016/17) - what infrastructure has been developed with that funding? I cannot find any public record of what was achieved with this fund. I would be interested to know both how it was used and whether the needs of children were taken into account when the spending was allocated.
 
Thanks again for your engagement.
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HeB
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby HeB » Tue May 04, 2021 9:18 pm

Dear Wandsworth Council

I am a parent and safer streets volunteer at a Wandsworth School. My post was referring to a request for more support for that programme generally (including practical and financial support) - it depends entirely on volunteers and there doesn’t seem to be a plan to install cameras on the street in question. I don’t have the full details but my understanding was lack of funding. Unfortunately depending on numerous parent volunteers every day indefinitely to man the barriers is not sustainable, particularly as people are going back to commuting for work now and have less time to help out.

I’d also say as a general statement, having volunteered a few times, and been on the receiving end of a lot of abuse for just being in the street and politely guiding cars to keep our children safe and trying to keep the school streets less polluted - there are a lot of angry people out there who seem to think it’s their right to drive wherever they want to, whenever they want to, whatever the cost. There is a lot of further education to be done here. I get the feeling that motorists are currently shouting loudest and being listened to the most, whereas actually the people most affected by this are London’s children whose lungs and development is being affected by the high levels of pollution in our streets. We need to get our priorities straight.
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ronangel
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Re: Local travel after lockdown - a safer school run?

Postby ronangel » Mon May 10, 2021 6:48 am

On a lighter note, this could be the answer to get your child safely to and from school. Even the mayor has a similar one but does not need extra armament because of his bodyguards which a mayor loved by all should not need!
schoolsuv.jpg
 
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