Walking and cycling to school after lockdown

Scotland’s schools closed to most pupils on 20 March, and no date has yet been set for them to reopen. When they do, the journey there will look different. Buses will carry fewer passengers to keep people apart, school gates will need to avoid crowds, and many parents will be tempted to drive. John J Reilly of the University of Strathclyde and Mark S Tremblay of the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa have argued in The Conversation that the return is a chance to get more children walking, cycling and scooting instead, for their health and for the air around schools.

The starting point

Scotland’s figures on school travel come from the annual Hands Up Scotland Survey run by Sustrans, in which pupils say how they usually get to school. In the 2018 survey, 48.7 per cent travelled actively: 42.5 per cent walked, 3.8 per cent cycled and 2.4 per cent came by scooter or skateboard. Almost a quarter, 23.1 per cent, were driven. Walking has fallen from 45.8 per cent in 2010 while the share driven has crept up, and secondary pupils are less likely to travel actively than primary pupils.

Reilly and Tremblay point out that this pattern is typical of wealthy countries, and that the decline has continued even though policy in Scotland supports active travel on paper. They blame a gap between policy and delivery, along with parents who are reluctant to let children make the trip without an adult.

Why it matters

The UK Chief Medical Officers advise that children and young people should average at least 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity across the week. The authors note that only a small minority of children worldwide reach that level. Their own research suggests that walking or cycling to school supplies around 17 minutes of such activity a day for primary pupils and 13 for secondary pupils, a large share of the target from a journey that has to be made anyway. They also cite evidence that this kind of activity helps children learn.

Fewer cars at the gate also means less danger from traffic and less exhaust where children gather. And for many children the walk to school is the first regular chance to find their own way around their neighbourhood.

What would help now

Money for quick changes already exists. On 28 April the Scottish Government announced £10 million for its Spaces for People programme, which lets councils put in pop-up cycle lanes, wider pavements and other temporary measures without having to find matching funds. Routes to schools are an obvious place to spend it: more room at the gates for distancing, lower speed limits nearby, and streets closed to through traffic at drop-off and pick-up times.

Schools can prepare as well, by mapping safe routes, organising walking groups for younger children and making space for bikes and scooters. Staggered start times, which many schools may need for distancing, would spread the traffic out.

None of this will undo a long decline in a single term. But habits are easiest to change when a routine has already been broken, and the months before schools reopen are an unusual chance to change how children get there.

Since then: on 21 May the Scottish Government set 11 August as the date for schools to reopen, and pupils went back full time that month rather than on the part-time pattern first planned.