Active and safe travel to school
VicHealth supports many initiatives that promote active and safe travel to school.
VicHealth’s vision is to reverse the trend of only 30% of children walking or cycling to school to at least 60% of children walking and cycling to school on most days of the week. To this end, VicHealth supports many initiatives that promote active and safe travel to school and support change to school travel patterns.
VicHealth’s Walking School Bus initiative, which is active in over 58 local councils, is getting more kids walking to school more often, instead of being driven.
The Walking School Bus has been important in its own right, but has also acted as a catalyst for further improvements to the local environment and additional numbers of people walking and cycling safely to school.
Streets Ahead program
Streets Ahead: Supporting children to get active in their neighbourhoods will support communities to create supportive environments that enhance children’s active transport and independent mobility in all aspects of their community life, including to and from school.
Walking School Bus program
The Walking School Bus provides an excellent opportunity to support a shift from car-based travel to active transport. A Walking School Bus involves trained volunteers collecting children from designated drop-off points and walking them to and from school.
In partnership with the International Council for Local Environment Issues (ICLEI), VicHealth has developed a tool to demonstrate the health and community savings for families and the environment from the Walking School Bus Program.
Greenlight Project
One of the most unexpected benefits of the Walking School Bus Program has come from the City of Port Phillip, where the program spawned a pedestrian safety research project the Greenlight Project that may well lead to policy changes that will affect all pedestrians. Community concerns about cross-ability of major roads led to the study of six signalised crossings in Port Phillip, Bayside and Greater Geelong on major roads used by Walking School Bus groups.
Pedal Pods (cycling school buses)
Bairnsdale 754 Primary School, East Gippsland
Pedal Pods or cycling school buses, are similar to Walking School Buses. The Pedal Pod Guide (see below) was developed by Bicycle Victoria to provide information and ideas to Walking School Bus Coordinators, volunteers, parents and schools who are thinking about implementing a cycling school bus.
Pedal Pod forms
About the forms
Rules
Expression of Interest
Route audit
Contingency planning
Parent consent
Rider pledge
Verification of rider competence
Roster head and tail
Rider attendance
Contact list
For more ride-to-school information and activities visit the Bicycle Victoria website.
Walktober Walk to School
Walktober Walk to School is part of Walktober, an initiative developed by Kinect Australia in collaboration with VicHealth. It aims to raise the profile of walking and highlight the broader community health and social benefits. For more information go to the Walktober website.
Active Transport Forum 2007
In December 2007 international walking expert Dr Rodney Tolley was a guest speaker at VicHealth's Active Transport Forum.
Dr Rodney Tolley presentation PPT
Bicycle education
The Bike Ed Challenge Competition will be implemented across Victoria to raise the profile of bicycle education safety and improve the skills of primary school aged children. VicHealth is funding Bicycle Victoria to work with VicRoads to develop formal Bike Ed Challenge Guidelines. The guidelines will provide consistent standards addressing safety and provide information on how to go about implementing a Bike Ed Challenge in a local school or community. The guidelines will also support initiatives related to road safety, cycling skills, road rules, active transport, health and fitness and sustainable transport. VicRoads is proposing to use these guidelines to encourage a cross government/sector approach to supporting a Bike Ed Challenge for 3 years.
School Travel Planning Program
The Department of Infrastructure’s School Travel Planning Program funded through the Victorian Greenhouse Strategy supports the Walking School Bus, and also encourages cycling and independent walking to school through events and the promotion of active transport. Bayside City Council has improved safety around Elsternwick Primary School, one of the first schools to take part in both programs, by installing a pedestrian priority roundabout after the Walking School Bus created increased demand for crossing this junction.