Walk to School Week
Posted on 16th May 2023 at 13:52
One Step at a Time
National Walk to School week is upon us, with a host of programs and events happening across England. The week-long event aims to get children walking to school rather than being dropped off in the car.
At R-evolution, we are big fans of active travel and believe that getting young people walking, cycling, and scooting is important for the community and for the planet. By choosing to travel actively, in schools and in our daily lives, we can help create a happier, healthier, greener society.
The School Run
National Walk to School week is a countrywide initiative with over 1’000 schools participating. Spearheaded by the charity Living Streets, the annual event encourages children to walk or wheel to school through a variety of activities and challenges. These activities include group walks, interactive challenges, and participation rewards. This year’s National Walk to School Week is centred around nature, combining exploration of local ecosystems with the sustainability of active travel in schools.
It is important to encourage our children to walk to school. More than just a means to an end, walking is an important part of our development, a childhood rite of passage in which we learn about the world around us. Each new step encourages independence, discovery, and a chance for social interaction with our peers. These are things our children cannot gain stuffed into a car seat idly daydreaming about the world outside the window.
R-evolution volunteer teaching cycle maintenance in a local school
Mode Shift Starts in our Schools
In the past year R-evolution has conducted research on how parents and children travel to school. Encouragingly, we found that most children do in fact walk to school in the Humber region. Unfortunately, the second most common form of transport was driving, in line with the trend of more and more children in the UK being driven to school as our streets become less and less pedestrian friendly.
Through our interaction with the local community, R-evolution has thought up one or two ideas about how more and more families and children can travel actively to school. Group walks and walking buses can help alleviate worries regarding safety. Improving walking infrastructure and reducing congestion around schools can also make it easier for children to access safer routes to their schools.
R-evolution has had a longstanding relationship with Tiger’s Trust, running schemes in which we provide students in local Humber schools training and knowledge on cycling maintenance and activities. This both encourages children to take up cycling through exciting training courses and teaches skills that students can use for the rest of their lives.
At R-evolution we can’t change the weather, nor can we get everyone to ditch the car straight away. However, by encouraging activity in the community and in local schools through our Bike Libraries, Community Hubs, Dr Bike demonstrations and school outreach programs, we can encourage a mode shift away from carbon emitting transportation.
Next Steps
At R-evolution we are dedicated to getting people on their feet and active, whether in schools or in the wider community. This year, we are adopting three schools across Hull, East Riding and North Lincolnshire to pilot a new scheme focusing on tackling the number of cars being used to commute to school. Our aim is to reduce the amount of congestion, lower carbon emissions in the area, and improve student safety on the way to school.
We will be offering a variety of initiatives and rewards to incentivise pupils and parents to choose cycling, scooting and walking to school.
Keep your eyes on our socials for updates!
Tagged as: Mode Shift, Walking
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