Rethinking the school drop-off

31 January 2024  By: Ruth Callaghan

When the parents of primary school students today were young, three-quarters walked to school.

Today, just one in five Perth children will walk or ride and among those who will be driven to the door, half live less than a kilometre from school.

While the school drop-off might seem a small moment in time, compared to all the other road trips taken to work, running chores or heading to the shops, collectively school commutes add up.

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The Department of Transport (DoT) estimates travel to school represents 18.4 per cent of morning peak transport trips in Perth’s metropolitan area, making a substantial contribution to congestion.

That includes approximately 250,000 trips each weekday and more than a million vehicle kilometres travelled daily — with the associated impact of increased emissions.

It’s a concerning problem that is set to get far worse unless the decline of active travel – such as cycling and walking – is arrested.

School traffic set to increase

A position paper prepared by DoT looking at national and local trends predicts school traffic in Perth will grow by another 40 per cent by 2031, adding to commute times, as the school age population climbs.

“Over the last 40 years, nationally, we've gone from 75 per cent of children using active travel to school to 25 per cent, and in Perth, the rate is as low as 20 per cent,” says Helen Ginbey, Manager of Travel Behaviour Change at DoT.

“It’s a compelling picture when presented in those terms and a concern for a range of reasons.

“Children’s health and wellbeing is a key one, but there are associated issues with parking and congestion issues around schools, and safety impacts as well.”

An emerging concern with school traffic is the recorded rise in harmful emissions around schools.

School trips in Perth are estimated to create 386,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, adding to the impact of transport emissions on climate change.

But the localised effect is also dangerous.

The behaviour of parents on the school run — often sitting in idling cars clustered together for long periods of time — is associated with a surge in the levels of harmful particulates recorded in mornings and afternoons at schools.

School zone congestion

There is also the community impact of school commuting, with an increased cost associated with road maintenance, school parking, and the impact of increased traffic around school areas.

DoT estimates that even a one per cent rise in the proportion of children walking or cycling to school would save government and community over nearly $2.6 million dollars a year, while reducing congestion and travel times.

It would also help alleviate the growing parking problems around schools, which can spill over into surrounding streets.

While the State Government has recently announced free public transport for students heading to school, which should help, for many schools walking and cycling remain the key goals.

Despite the benefits, resistance to active travel often comes down to questions of student safety.

“We know that 50 per cent of kids say they want to walk and ride to school but that the parents are the decision-makers, particularly in primary schools,” Ginbey says.

“They face different time constraints and they can have safety concerns about whether it is safe or not for kids to walk and ride.

“A lot of the initiatives we are working on are not only about improving end-of-trip facilities at schools but looking at the routes kids are taking to and from school and seeing if we can improve connectivity and access, and enhance that perception of safety.”

Paradoxically, the same safety concerns that prompt parents to drive their children are exacerbated by the number of parents making the same choice.

Congestion around schools can make it riskier for children to cross the road alone. Large, reversing cars and poor lines of sight can increase the risk to young and smaller pedestrians.

Younger children more vulnerable on the road

RAC Senior Manager Public Policy Anita McCracken says young children are more vulnerable when walking or cycling to school for a range of reasons, including their difficulty being seen by other road users, tendency towards distraction, a lack of awareness of road risks and trouble in judging vehicle speed and proximity.

“A key one, in terms of road safety, is their unpredictability,” she says.

This is why lower speeds are important around schools as they allow drivers more time to respond to potential conflicts. Young children are going through various developmental stages, developing peripheral vision and the ability to correctly assess different risks, whereas an older child or adult will likely have a greater level of awareness of their surroundings.”

“While we know that the area immediately surrounding the school can often be congested with vehicles which can pose some safety concerns, we also know that in most cases children over 10 years of age have the cognitive ability to navigate these situations. Identifying the safest route with slow vehicle speeds and protected crossings, will allow children the independence to get to school by walking or riding".

Finding a solution

Trying to combat these barriers to active school travel is part of a 24-step roadmap developed by the State Government, bringing together multiple departments and agencies to consider the problem.

It looks at four main areas of influence, the urban environment, policy and regulation, social values and individual behaviours — from providing bike education to help students build their road skills to improving the network of paths that connect schools with public transport routes.

The roadmap also allows for some experimental initiatives, such as staggering school start times or excluding cars from areas immediately around schools.

No-car zones have been tried in cities including London and Melbourne, with streets closed to traffic during drop-off and pick-up times.

The approach usually includes allowing parents to drive near to the school, but for children to be able to walk, ride or scoot the final blocks on car-free roads.

That can be critical for parents who ‘trip chain’ — a term given to commuting patterns where there might be several goals, like dropping children at different schools then heading on to work.

“Not having enough time is a barrier for some parents, and trip chaining appears to be quite common. Despite some saying they would like to walk with their kids to ensure they are safe, the time they need to travel to school, return home and then head elsewhere can be a barrier,” RAC’s Anita McCracken says.

“We know it’s critical to encourage people to use active modes of transport so whatever we can do to help make walking and riding a more convenient choice is key.” Helen Ginbey from DoT says there are plans to trial exclusion zones in some key areas, working with nearby residents and school communities to minimise disruption.

“We’re delivering a project at the moment on the Armadale train line working with 14 schools to provide them support to encourage active transport while they’ve lost access to the train line,” she says.

“We think there’s a real potential for more walking and riding so we will test exclusion zones and closed streets, learning from the work in Melbourne and London where they seem to be having a lot of success with these initiatives.”

Ginbey says a growing number of schools are on board with the campaign to get students moving, and a voluntary program called Your Move has grown to include nearly 250 Perth schools.

Schools that are part of the program saw a 6 per cent fall in car trips in 2022 over 2021, a 4 per cent increase in walking trips and a 17 per cent increase in the number of children riding to school. “The champions in the schools are doing some incredible things to inspire a change in culture.”

How one school is tackling the problem

At Bramfield Park Primary School in Maddington, concerns around the safety of children and parking congestion were a key talking point at the school gate during the pandemic, when many parents would walk with their children and then hand the over at the edge of the school grounds.

The school is on a narrow local road, and not far from Kelvin Road — which last year recorded speeding by more than 15 per cent of drivers, according to WA Police.

Principal Jayne Murray says that when the school was invited to join the Your Move initiative, it took the opportunity to find a sustainable way to encourage walking and riding while keeping students safe.

She enlisted teacher Annita Wenban to coordinate the program with an enthusiastic group of students from years 3 to 6, and parent representatives.

“We started off small and we accepted that this is a behaviour change that we want to achieve and sustain,” Wenban says.

“We didn’t just want to get a lot of bike riders on special days but increase our regular cyclists and walkers and decrease driving.

“We have been able to do that now over three years.”