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SCOTTISH SCHOOL TRAVEL ADVISORY GROUP REPORT
Annex D Scottish School Travel Advisory Group Report
Suggested Programme of Research to inform implementation of recommendations and evaluate implementation
1. A review of research on school travel. This will provide a concise summary of available evidence on different aspects of school travel to provide context for, and to inform the implementation of the Group's recommendations. The review will cover UK and international research published since 1995. It will divide into two parts to look at (a) factors affecting school travel, including rising car ownership, parental choice of schools, public transport provision, congestion and road safety, personal safety, including bullying, children carrying more equipment and books to school, and parents' work patterns and time pressures; and (b) effectiveness of school travel initiatives designed to address or ameliorate these and other problems. Any evidence on funding mechanisms and joint working will be of particular interest. As most of this research will have been conducted outwith Scotland an important aspect of the study will be to assess its relevance to school travel in this country.
2. A study into the reasons why parents drive their children to school even in situations where there are adequate public transport alternatives or the distances can be walked or cycled. In 1999, according to the Scottish Household Survey, 23% of primary school age children and 12% of secondary school age children travelled to school by car or van. Half of these lived within a theoretical walking distance of school (1km for primary, 2km for secondary) and for a fifth the journey was possible by public transport. Within this group therefore are children for whom mode shift from the car is theoretically possible. This research should also compile evidence on actual risks to children on the school journey on different forms of transport, including road accident and personal safety risks, in relation to exposure. It should also include an assessment of benefits of walking and cycling to school
and an exploration of parents' willingness to change and conditions for achieving this. This work will inform future publicity campaigns and the promotion of school travel plans to parents.
3. Good Practice in Joint Working. For school travel plans to be effective there needs to be joint planning and working at all levels . This will research the barriers to joint working and identify examples of good practice in Scotland and the rest of the UK which can be promoted.
4.(a) Update on safer routes to school/school travel plan activity. The inventory of Safer Routes to School schemes in Scotland carried out by Derek Halden is now 3 years old. This could be updated and expanded to cover School Travel Plan activity to provide a baseline against which to measure change arising from Scottish STAG's recommendations. The Access database could be up-date by means of a postal survey.
(b) Evaluation of initiatives that have been put in place in order to assess their relative effectiveness in achieving modal shift with a view to possibly producing good practice guidelines5. Children's attitudes to sustainable transport. This project is already part of the planned 2002-03 Executive transport research programme. It could be tailored to meet the needs of the Group for guidance on how to influence children's travel behaviour, including the role of schools and the curriculum. Links with the DTLR project on promoting alternative modes in the school environment would need to be clarified.
6. Evaluation of American yellow school bus pilots. The implications for Scotland of the results of this research sponsored by DTLR should be considered. If any Scottish local authority becomes involved in the pilot the SE should monitor its progress closely.
7. In addition to the ongoing monitoring of individual school travel plan activity, other new initiatives will need to be evaluated over the longer term e.g. the effectiveness of the school travel officer proposal. The first task of the smaller Group in developing an implementation strategy should be to develop concurrently with it the details of this monitoring programme.
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