As a continuation of it’s involvement with Thunder Bay’s Active & Safe Routes to School Committee, EcoSuperior is excited to bring School Travel Planning to Thunder Bay in partnership with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit. Spearheaded by Green Communities Canada, School Travel Planning (STP) is a community-based approach that has been used with success to increase the number of children choosing active transportation modes to get to and from school.
The STP process addresses the issues of sustainability by bringing together a diverse group of community stakeholders (school boards, police, public health officials, parents, educators and children) to identify and solve school transportation problems. Two pilot schools have been selected: Ecole Gron Morgan and Corpus Christie, both situated on Marlborough Road.
School Travel Planning aims to decrease the number of car trips and increase the number of children walking and cycling to and from school, resulting in:
-
Improved health, fitness and happiness of the students;
-
Improved safety for all community residents;
-
Reduced traffic congestion and less principal time spent dealing with traffic issues and complaints;
-
Positive environmental impacts: reduced pollution, improved air quality, fewer greenhouse gas emissions that impact climate change
-
Potential cost savings: opportunities for parents to reduce expenditures on gas, chance for school boards to reduce bussing costs (in cases where children are bussed due to safety, i.e. lack of sidewalks or need to cross a busy street, rather than distance), chance for schools to save staff time in the long term as recurrent safety issues are dealt with and parent complaints decline.
Each school writes a School Travel Plan based upon data collected and analyzed from student and family surveys, and problems identified during a walkabout and Traffic/Pedestrian/Cyclist Count. The plan will include an Action Plan section describing steps they plan to implement such as:
-
Introduction of school infrastructure—e.g. bike shelters, bike racks, lockers
-
Education—e.g. safety training for walking and cycling, awareness raising
-
Community mobilization—e.g. walking school busses, walking buddies, ride sharing;
-
Encouragement—e.g. celebrations of physical activity and environment, event days
-
recognition and rewards for walking/biking
-
Engineering improvements at or near school sites—e.g. pedestrian crossings, adult crossing guards, repairs and upgrades to sidewalks, signage.
For more information, contact Ashley or visit Safe Routes to School.
2012 NATIONAL RESULTS - FINAL REPORT, Children's Mobility, Health and Happiness - A Canadian School Travel Planning Model
Page last updated on Monday, September 24, 2012
