A safe, clean and green school run for every child
ACROSS ENGLAND AND THE UK
our vision
We’re on a mission to solve the # schoolrun. We think every pupil at every school should be able to get to school safely, easily and sustainably, regardless of how far away they live.
We want a school run that works for everyone, with an array of convenient, sustainable, travel choices free of road danger. Whether it's a 13-year-old cycling independently to their local secondary school, an eight-year old taking an electric mini-bus, or a five-year-old in their parent's cargo bike. We need sustainable transport for schools.
who are we?
A RESOURCE FOR YOU
We’re parents fed up with the chaos, congestion, road danger and air pollution our children have to face on the school run each day. Not to mention the logistical burden that these daily journeys can put on families. With little current support on offer for sustainable transport for schools and families, we've set up Solve the School Run to find safe, sustainable, and convenient school run solutions.
The difference between term time traffic and school holiday traffic highlights that there are far too many school run car trips. But the more we speak to families, the more we discover that so many want to be free of this burden every day. The solution? better sustainable transport for the schools.
Researching the situation, we were amazed at the systemic problems surrounding the school run for UK families. From road danger, preventing pupils from travelling independently, to a shortfall of government infrastructure and information in place that enables collective pupil travel to help working families.
A major observation was that the lack of useful data available to manage the problem. We therefore decided to put our research and data analysis together on transport for schools and hope that what we've discovered will be helpful to families and campaigners struggling with the school run all over London (and beyond)!
As the problems became clear, so did the solutions. Read on to find out how our data analysis and Take Action toolkit can help you find the most effective solutions for getting children to school near you.
Ways to improve the school run
IN ENGLAND AND THE UK
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Did you know?
UK families are seriously losing out!
How does the primary school run here compare to other countries?
UK vs USa
UK vs japan
In the UK, if you are under the age of 8, you have to live over 2 miles from your nearest primary school to qualify for free state travel to school. 2 miles can be a long way for a 6 year old to walk to school...
In the case of the US, in many states the iconic yellow school bus system starts with pupils as young as a 4 year old, living just 0.5 miles away from whichever school you choose to attend. This means working parents do not have to fit in the schoolrun around their work day and drive their children to school. In our opinion, a much better system! And it doesn't have to be a physical bus vehicle that takes pupils short distances to school. Ideally, it would be a staffed walking line, or cycle group that pupils can join. They key point here is it is a government or council provided service so that the individual parent does not have to make these journeys.
In UK schools, primary school pupils aren’t traditionally allowed to travel to school independently until they are year 5 or 6, starting this journey at around age 10. This is mostly because of the road danger risk along their walking routes and perhaps the perceived risk of other societal dangers.
In the case of Japan, they have cultivated a society where pupils as young as 5 or 6 walk together en mass to school. It's considered normal for children to travel alone. The roads are safer precisely because there is so much less school related traffic, reducing road danger and their public transport system in superb. There is a sense of community safety with often the retired generation providing an informal adult presence on the street. Again, this means working parents don’t have to fit the school run in around their work day. We love this!
UK vs germany
Research shows that only 25% of primary school pupils in the UK travel home alone as opposed to 76% in Germany. That's so many more UK families having to plan the school run into their day, and as a consequence so many more school run car trips.
Countries all over the world have designed or enabled collective approaches for transport for schools. That means that pupils can get to school from a young age without their parents. To reduce car journeys, pollution, carbon emissions, road danger and family stress, this is what we need in the UK.
