Walking buses for Bray?

Government plans to change how our children get to school

Cllr. Steve Matthews said: "Dropping kids to school by car is the most inefficient way of getting them there. Not only does it cause traffic chaos, but it releases tonnes of carbon into our atmosphere every year. Going by bus, walking or cycling has many benefits for our children, one of the most important being - their health. Perhaps our local national schools could look at the option of a walking bus scheme (who don't already have a Scheme in place), where parents collect children in groups and walk them safely to and from school?"

Cllr. Caroline Burrell said, "I walk or cycle with my children to school which helps to exercise and promote a healthy life-style for them as well as providing a fun element to their day. Lessons learned in childhood stay with you for life and as the price of oil soars and parents are watching the miles tick by on the clock, it may well be that walking or cycling to school is not a thing of the past but the only way to go. We should all cycle, walk and take public transport for journeys whenever we can. As a nation our current travel patterns are unsustainable. We all have to open our minds to alternative modes of transport."

The Green School Travel initiative has been in place since 2005 targeting the Greater Dublin Area. This new funding will allow the programme to be rolled out in all provinces covering over a quarter of a million school children.

The funding will be used to:

1. Promote walk to school initiatives such as WOW days (Walk on Wednesday), walking buses, park'n stride and Golden Boot awards.
2. Promote cycle to school initiatives through the provision of cycle training in schools, cycle parking facilities, breakfast mornings for teachers and pupils and Golden Bike awards.
3. Promote carpooling through consultation with the wider population served by schools.
4. Raise awareness of travel alternatives through the development of children/parent/teacher transport workshops, presentations, annual competitions and travel information boards at school gates.

The Department of Transport has also announced the establishment of a consultative committee to assist the Government in developing a more holistic approach to tackling the challenges faced by parents and schoolchildren in choosing alternative school travel options. This committee is representative of bodies such as Local Authorities, the Road Safety Authority, relevant Government Departments, Dublin Transport Office and An Taisce. The committee will be tasked with setting out how issues such as the following can be addressed:

• Appropriate traffic calming measures around schools
• Footpaths to service rural schools
• Measures to deter dangerous parking near school gates
• Better cycling infrastructure in schools

School Travel effect on general traffic (DTO figures)

1. Over 100,000 primary and secondary school children, in the Greater Dublin Area, travel to school in approximately 50,000 cars each day during school term.
2. 45% of these car trips are two-way trips from home to school and return to home. This amounts to 45,000 trips on the road network (2 x 45% of 50,000)
3. 40% of the school trips are one-way but involve a detour to the school and continuation onwards, generally to place of work.
4. Approximately 57,000 trips are removed directly from the road network when the schools are closed. Most of these trips are concentrated into the 30 minutes 8:30 to 9:00. This is a very high proportion of the total trips in the 8:00 to 9:00 peak hour estimated to be about 250,000.

For further information please contact:
Caroline Burrell on 086-314 0453; email: burrell@wicklowgreens.org
Ciaran O'Brien on 087-206 0223; email: obrien@wicklowgreens.org
Steve Matthews on 086-277 2947; email: matthews@wicklowgreens.org