Active School Travel: Tools for Change

Why should school communities promote active transportation modes for school travel?

Some data to consider: According to the baseline Family Travel Survey collected by Ever Active Schools between 2019 and 2024 in Alberta, 32.8% of families (n=6190 responses) use active modes of transportation most often for trips to school, while 36.7% of families (n=6403 responses) use active modes most often for trips from school. 22.6% of families surveyed opt for more sustainable transportation options, such as school busing, municipal transit, and carpooling, for trips to school, while 23.7% exercise these options for trips from. These are pretty significant numbers. Let’s take a closer look at the why.

Extensive benefits are the payoff when students and families choose to travel actively for school trips. Increased rates of daily physical activity for children and youth (and additional family members who decide to tag along) are the obvious benefit, but there are so many others to consider:

Children who walk to school have been found to have higher academic performance in terms of attention/alertness, verbal, numerical, and reasoning abilities; a higher degree of pleasantness and lower levels of stress during the school day; and higher levels of happiness, excitement and relaxation on the journey to school. Walking to school can further foster personal growth by developing a sense of independent decision-making, emotional bonds with peers and the natural environment, and road and traffic safety skills. (University of Toronto, Why Walking to School is Better Than Driving Your Kids).

Active transportation reduces traffic volumes and congestion around the school site when more students and families choose it. When there are fewer vehicles, there are fewer interactions between them and vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, etc) improving safety. Fewer vehicles also equate to reduced emissions which is an important factor in air health. What’s more, with global emission reduction targets looming, active transportation is a climate action that many families can adopt. Active School Travel (AST) is also more cost-effective, reducing fuel and other transportation costs for families.

School readiness and Active School Travel project setup

As a school community considers its involvement in an AST project, it should first assess its readiness. Ever Active Schools employs the Comprehensive School Health Approach to engage and support school communities.

  • To gauge readiness, we encourage school administrators to review the University of Alberta’s Sircle Lab’s Essential Conditions for Taking a CSH Approach.
  • If it’s evident that will and readiness are in check, the next step is to form a school AST team, drawing from all stakeholder groups, including school administrators, staff, students, school council members, parents and caregivers, and community members. This team will familiarize themselves with Green Communities Canada’s School Travel Planning Toolkit to gain a clear understanding of the process, timelines, and expectations.
  • We also recommend that school teams connect with municipal Transportation Advisory Committees to increase awareness and build support for their undertaking.
  • Lastly, school administrators and teaching staff involved in the project should review the AST Curricular Connections resource to understand how the project can be used to support course curriculum if students are to take a leading role in the project (which is recommended).

And away we go!

The School Travel Planning (STP) process provides the tools necessary to help school communities address traffic safety issues at their school sites. This increases the number of families choosing active and more sustainable transportation modes for school trips. The STP toolkit is designed with students in mind, enabling them to play roles throughout the process. This intentional inclusion empowers students while the process itself helps them to build civic literacy.

Through involvement in STP, students engage in the research process – from baseline data collection (travel surveys, traffic counts and observations, walkabouts), to issue identification and analysis, to creating a problem-solving statement, to action planning and implementation, to follow-up data collection – using their own school’s data while helping to solve traffic congestion and road safety challenges at their school. Of course, students will not shoulder this challenge alone: school AST teams, school councils, community organizations, and municipal Transportation Advisory Committees all play a role.

In addition to the tools that exist as part of the STP toolkit, we recommend using the following to support evaluation, encouragement, and education interventions:

Change is Here

When a school community commits to AST, it is not just one school community that benefits. Given that STP is an evidence-based approach, the data collected throughout the process is extremely valuable to school jurisdiction and municipal transportation decision-makers. Always remember that we can effortlessly share and scale AST successes to additional schools, jurisdictions, and municipalities, exponentially amplifying the benefits for all. Tie your shoelaces, Alberta. Change is here.

 

Written by Tracey Coutts, Ever Active Schools
Originally shared in Healthy Schools Alberta Magazine, Fall 2024 edition. Read it for free online here!

 

Posted in Active Living, Comprehensive School Health, For Parents, For Teachers and tagged , , ,

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