Pupils urged to keep walking to school

Walk-to-school initiatives work, but only with long-term commitment, organisers say.

Last week, more than 140,000 children from 443 schools took part in a range of activities to encourage walking and cycling on Land Transport New Zealand's Feet First walk-to-school day.

However, the latest results from the Transport Ministry's ongoing household transport survey show that over half of New Zealand children are driven to school each day, up from 31 per cent in 1990.

Over the same period, walking and cycling by five to 14-year-olds has dropped from an average of two hours and 10 minutes a week to just under one hour and 20 minutes.

School-age children spend about two-thirds of their travel time in a car.

Land Transport New Zealand spokesman Andy Knackstedt said Feet First week was just one of a range of initiatives.

"That one event is designed to raise the profile of walking and cycling to school and show people they can do it," he said.

"The next part is to sustain that, and we have a range of initiatives, like Walking Wednesdays and Walking Buses," Knackstedt said.

Participation in Feet First week had doubled this year and the initiatives were expected to reverse trends seen in the Transport Ministry survey, he said.

Christchurch City Council environment group schools co-ordinator Joy Kingsbury-Aitken said the number of schools interested in "sustainable journeys" was increasing.

"Where it has really had a dramatic effect is in those schools that have developed a travel plan and it becomes part of the school's culture," she said.

"It does take commitment, though, and I have been working on trying to make it a regular thing at schools rather than a one-off," Kingsbury-Aitken said.

Encouraging children to walk to school improved the environment, made children healthier and helped to develop "street skills" such as road safety and traffic awareness as they were growing up.

At Westburn School, alternative transport has become so popular that the school is building a second shed to house pupils' scooters.

About 97 per cent of its staff and pupils took part in the Feet First walk to school last week.

Principal David Brown said the school was lucky because it had a dedicated parent who co-ordinated the plan.

"Having a parent co-ordinator makes it a real partnership. She does a lot of work promoting it among staff and students, which has made it a real success here," he said.

"We have a 40km/h zone outside the school, so speed is not so much of an issue, but the volume of traffic was a real issue for us."

Parents were encouraged not to park near the school gates and to allow their children to walk, cycle or use a scooter to get to school.

Those who lived further away were encouraged to drive part of the journey and then let their children walk the last part, Brown said.

- © Fairfax NZ News