City of Greater Geelong Council: Steps up for Walk to School 2014

Healthy Together Geelong (HTG) and the City of Greater Geelong Engineering Services (Traffic Unit) are supporting local schools to identify safe active travel routes to and from school.

This case study addresses Requirement 3: Deliver local initiatives to support ongoing active travel by primary school aged children

Active travel routes with designated pick up/drop off points between 500m and 1km from schools provide opportunities for families who live greater distances from school to drive part-way and walk the rest of the way to school. These active travel routes can support families and children to meet the physical activity guidelines, as well as reduce traffic and parking congestion around schools. 

In 2013, HTG applied for a VicHealth Walk to School grant to support Portarlington Primary School to identify and promote a number of active travel routes. This helped schools meet the physical activity benchmarks of the Healthy Together Achievement Program. An evaluation was conducted and the process of identifying and promoting these routes to school recorded. 

In 2014, HTG applied for another VicHealth Walk to School Grant to support the development of an A4 fact sheet to assist other local primary schools to identify and promote their own active travel routes to school. 

The fact sheet explains how to identify, map and promote safe active travel routes to school and is based on the Portarlington Primary School’s successful approach. It also provides a couple of quick ‘did you know’ facts about active travel and encourages schools to use other resources i.e. Victoria Walks Smart Steps resources.  

The fact sheet is available to all schools via the HTG website, and is a useful resource for HTG and City of Greater Geelong Engineering Services (Traffic Unit) as they continue to support Achievement Program registered schools in identifying and promoting safe active travel routes to school. 

In 2014, more than 4400 students from 26 local schools participated in Walk to School, an increase of more than 3300 students compared to 2013.

Download: School Active Travel: Create your own safe active travel routes (PDF, 180KB)

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