Benefits of a School Travel Plan

The benefits of developing a Plan are enormous! Some of those benefits are outlined below:

Benefits for your School

• Reduced traffic congestion and pollution near and around the school
• Gives opportunities for sustainable travel to be built into the curriculum.
• A travel plan can help improve links with the school’s users and the local community.
• The school can use a school travel plan to help them gain Eco-schools and Healthy Schools’ status.
• If the plan is completed within a certain time scale the school may receive a grant to use in relation to their travel plan.

Benefits for Children

• Improved highway safety, education and awareness for children through Pedestrian and Cycling Training
• Improves the environment around the school for children to travel in.
• Improves health and fitness through increased levels of walking and cycling.
• Increases their knowledge of the area surrounding their school.
• Can improve behaviour on the school journey due to extra adult supervision through schemes such as walking buses.
• Can give the opportunity to children to directly influence their local community and make important decisions regarding changes.

Benefits for Parents

• May provide more time for parents to spend with their children on the journey to school.
• Reduces driving stress and improves journey quality.
• Allows parents to contribute to a school activity and also have an input in what happens in the school.
• Improves community awareness through working together.
• May make parents more aware of sustainable travel and start to use sustainable modes in more of their journeys.
• Can increase the parent’s daily activity and so improve their health and fitness.