Transport

Ringwood Home Page EcoSchools UK

Miss Belben, together with a group of students, carried out a transport survey throughout the school.  Find out how environmentally friendly YOUR year group is by clicking on the results here.   A second survey looked specifically at CAR JOURNEYS. Read the results here. A full travel plan was submitted in 2007 and we was accepted in the summer. Cycle sheds have been built and students continue to work with Councillors on improvements to transport in the town. Another survey, in early 2008 will show us whetehr the travel plan has been successful or not. Read what EcoSchools says about transport to school here.

The journey to school In 1986 children of 16 and younger made nearly 60% of their journeys to school on foot and only 16% by car. By 1996, the proportion of trips on foot had dropped to below half and those by car had almost doubled to 29%. There has been a decline in the use of public transport and cycling has fallen to less than 1% of school journeys. As a result almost one in five car trips on the urban network at 8:50 in the morning are taking children to school. There are many reasons for these trends. Among the most obvious are:      Parents’ fears about their children’s involvement in road traffic accidents if they walk or cycle to school      Parents’ fears about the personal safety of their children if they travel to school unaccompanied      Increases in car ownership and use, and in the proportion of households with a second car      Factors that result in longer journeys to school. The consequences of the change can include:        increase in peak period traffic congestion        increase in atmospheric pollution around schools        children have less opportunity to develop road safety and personal safety skills        lack of exercise and resulting impact on general health and well-being;        children’s independence and social interaction is reduced        travel habits are developed early in life which are difficult to change.        Increased use of a non-sustainable energy resource, oil. The journey to and from school is now an important part of a national debate on car dependence and the need to change travel habits and encourage people to walk, cycle or use public transport. Miss Belben, together with a small student team, ahs carried out a survey of how Ringwood students get to school. Do more people walk to Ringwood than the national average? (Remember that the vast majority of students live within a mile or so of school). Find out how Ringwood compares here. Miss Belben's survey marked the start of the next phase. Mr Lockyer, together with a team of Eco students, carried out a full transport survey and travel plan for the school. New bike sheds have just appeared (Summer 2007) in response to this. We hope that these new covered and secure sheds will encourage lots more students to cycle to school.