Life is often busy meaning we rarely have time to stop and think about the impact that our travel behaviour is having on ourselves, our children and the world around us.
We are all aware of rising obesity levels in children and adults, traffic congestion and associated pollution and the costs of running a car or difficulties in accessing public transport. But these are real issues that are facing many people in Torbay.
That is why the importance of promoting safer, sustainable and healthier travel to and from school along with our valued partners is high on our agenda. This strategy has been written to further develop the travel and transport choices available to local people and schools in Torbay.
We want everyone to have the opportunity to see what transport and travel options are available, and support people in making smart choices that benefit us all.
1. Introduction
Every young person in Torbay should be able to travel to school or college in a healthy, sustainable and safe way. Promoting sustainable modes of travel and trying and reduce reliance on car journeys will help tackle the growing childhood obesity epidemic, and support increasing independent mobility for children and young people across the full range of their activities. (Sustainable modes of travel include walking, using public transport rather than cars, cycling, using multi-passenger transport vehicles rather than individual cars and car-sharing.)
Pupils of statutory school age may be entitled to free travel arrangements on grounds of distance and/or income, or if they have individual needs due to special educational needs, disability or mobility problems. There is no general legal obligation to provide free home to school or college transport to students over the age of 16. However, Torbay Council offers some students support as necessary to enable access to education. There are also a number of concessionary fares and tickets available through local colleges and the Stagecoach Group.
Post-16 students may be eligible for other sources of financial help, depending on household income, to help with education costs including travel.
Tackling local congestion problems caused by journeys to schools or other educational institutions supports economic growth. Enabling young people, their families, staff and neighbouring communities to walk, cycle or use public transport more often also helps to reduce carbon emissions and increase access to education or employment sites.
Transforming education journeys demands locally tailored measures, combining public facing behaviour-change with investment in infrastructure which supports sustainable transport.
The Council is committed to develop stronger links with schools to develop their travel plans and hence their accountability and ownership in tackling school parking issues and encourage safe active travel to school.
2. Scope of this strategy
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (the EIA 2006) introduced new and enhanced duties for Local Authorities (LAs) in relation to sustainable school travel and the provision of school travel arrangements for children and young people. Section 508A of the Act places a general duty on local authorities to promote the use of sustainable travel and transport. There are four main elements to the duty:
- An assessment of the travel/ transport needs of children and young people living in Torbay.
- An audit of the sustainable travel/transport infrastructure in Torbay to enable young people to travel to and from or between schools, colleges or other education placements.
- A strategy to develop sustainable travel and transport.
- The promotion of sustainable travel and transport.
The duty to promote sustainable travel applies to children and young people resident in Torbay and receiving education or training both inside and outside of the authority’s area. The duty relates to journeys to and from institutions, including attendance at early years settings and after school activities and journeys between institutions during the day. It must also give consideration to the travel implications of the extended use of schools, and delivery of education and training at different institutions for the 14-19 age range.
Following the assessment of needs and completion of an audit of the existing sustainable transport infrastructure that supports travel to school, this strategy shows how Torbay Council is developing infrastructure so that it better meets the needs of children and young people.
The act defines ‘sustainable modes of travel’ as those which the authority considers may improve the physical well-being of those who use them and/or the environmental well-being of the whole or part of their area.
This strategy compliments a wide range of other plans in Torbay including:
- Torbay Local Plan
- Local Transport Plan –focused around making the best use of local transport networks, reducing congestion and encouraging modal shift to low carbon active travel, principally in the form of capital investment schemes and LSTF bids.
- Individual Travel Plans.
- Local strategies to increase physical activity and tackle obesity.
- Local road safety strategies – including through improving infrastructure for walking and cycling and providing increased skills in cycling.
- It also supports a number of national plans and deliver wider benefits, for example: Economic benefits – in addition to tackling congestion and improving access to employment and training sites, increasing walking and cycling on the education journey can reduce the need for car parking spaces within institutions, remove car parking from key highway corridors, and create a healthier and more productive workforce.
- Climate Change Act – encouraging a shift to more sustainable modes of travel will help meet carbon reduction targets.
3. Aims and Objectives
The Council and its partners will work together to:
- Improve infrastructure for walking and cycling.
- Maintain a database of unsafe routes to school and regularly review their status, including any possible improvements to the highway.
- Inform children and young people and their parents/carers of the travel options available to them (including pupils with Special Educational Needs) through the admissions process and Torbay Council’s website.
- Provide safe sustainable transport to school and college to eligible individuals.
- Ensure we have early involvement in any school-based capital projects to facilitate safe and sustainable travel to school.
- Unlock funding to improve safe routes to school with a focus on unavailable routes.
Promote healthy lifestyles for children and young people by: - Encouraging families to walk and cycle to school and college.
- Raising awareness of the benefits of healthy travel choices to promote access to
training or development schemes around life skills, e.g. “bikeability”. - Training young people with learning difficulties to travel to school and college.
independently wherever possible. - Ensure school developments promote arrival by active travel means.
Meet the requirements of the Education & Inspections Act 2006 in the provision of home to school transport: - Ensuring all who are entitled to free school transport are offered it.
- Providing information and advice to low-income families regarding extended provision
of free transport to a wider choice of school. - Supporting improved accessibility to education, including wider access to transport
for older students through the availability of Smartrider tickets. - Encouraging and coordinating sustainable modes of travel to and between Torbay’s
schools and colleges.
Measures of success include: - Increased public transport usage.
- More efficient and cost-effective school transport network.
- More young people with special needs travelling independently.
- Integration of passenger transport services.
- Increase active modes of travel, including walking and cycling.
- Reduce perceptions of risk around the journey to and from school in order to
facilitate more active modes of travel. - Achieve all objectives with no increase in collusions or casualties.
4. The Torbay Context
Many children and young people in Torbay live more than the statutory walking distance from
school and may be entitled to free or assisted home to school/college transport.
Pupils with Special Educational Needs who are entitled to free school transport are assessed for the
most appropriate transport to meet their needs. This is reviewed regularly, as the most appropriate
transport mode may vary as their needs change.
Local Transport Plan and Supporting School Travel Statement
The Local Transport Plan 3, sets out plans for improving transport over the next five years, and a longer term vision, looking ahead 20 - 30 years. Local Councils have agreed that transport investment should be based around the four shared priorities of tackling congestion, improving accessibility, improving air quality, and improving road safety.
The success of progress towards addressing these priorities is measured using a wide range of targets and measures aimed at reducing dependence on the car and promoting greater use of public transport, walking and cycling. A full list of targets is provided in the LTP including:
- 25% reduction in the number of children killed and seriously injured in road accidents.
- 12% increase in bus passengers.
- 30% increase in cycling.
The LTP responds to the national agenda for change embracing sustainable communities, shared priorities, and service improvement with strong links to social inclusion, housing and education. A series of supporting statements make up the LTP including a School Travel Supporting Statement.
The vision is to influence travel behaviour by developing and promoting school travel opportunities and facilities for pupils, staff and parents/carers which in turn reduces car dependency and increase the number of pupils walking, cycling and using public transport for school journeys. It aims to improve safety for school journeys and help to reduce road casualties and contribute towards improved health and fitness by increasing physical activity amongst parents, pupils and staff.
Working with communities
Torbay Council is working with communities to provide safe, sustainable, and low carbon transport choices. Devon & Torbay Councils will help people to travel ‘smarter.’ This means making cycling and walking a realistic choice for a range of journeys, making bus and rail travel convenient and reliable making car journeys more efficient by using intelligent traffic management and maximising the potential of car clubs, car sharing and encouraging eco-driving.
Many communities in Torbay are being proactive in developing low carbon solutions to everyday activities and creating more sustainable communities. It will also be important to trial a range of low carbon initiatives as technology advances over the next 15 years. The possibility of trialling electric vehicle technology such as charging points for vehicles will be considered. Torbay will also promote the use of electric bikes to provide more opportunities for people to make the most of the developing cycle network.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) is likely to have an increasingly important role in reducing the need to travel. Working, shopping, access to information and services can, for some people, be done at home as more and more people own personal computers and have access to faster broadband connections. Although not everyone will choose to use technology in the place of travel, ICT has an important role in delivering the plan’s vision for better connections in a low carbon future.
Tackling the negative impacts of travel such as poor air quality and collisions is important. In Torbay some roads have a legal designation as an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).
Travel planning, education and training will be delivered by working with employers, schools and individuals. Communities will be encouraged to develop solutions to improve accessibility, promote safety and reduce the environmental impact of transport.
The plan will maintain the current trend of reducing the number of collisions with Torbay having a good record in improving road safety for all transport users. A mixture of education, encouragement, enforcement and engineering alongside evaluation will be used to further improve the safety of all road users.
5. Sustainable travel assessment/audit
There are currently 17 nursery schools and many private nurseries, 30 primary schools, 9 secondary schools and three special schools in Torbay. There are currently approximately 18,400 children attending primary and secondary schools with an average of around 1400 at secondary transfer each year. Torbay Council currently spends in the region of £1.83m a year on home to school travel.
Approximately 900 children and young people receive transport assistance to and from school from Torbay Council.
6. Existing Projects
Torbay Council, in partnership with stakeholders, continues to deliver an extensive programme of activities/initiatives to promote sustainable school travel:
School Travel Planning
The 1998 Road Safety Strategy advocated travel plans to promote the use of sustainable modes of travel to school and by April 2010 every Torbay school had plans in place. The Road Safety Team works with schools and Spatial Planning to monitor these plans focussing on the measures outlined to remove barriers in cycling and walking to school and help to reduce the road safety risks, perceived and actual.
All schools in Torbay were encouraged and assisted to develop School Travel Plans by Torbay Council in 2009/10. This included an assessment of school travel needs and how they are met, an audit of
infrastructure for walking, cycling and bus use, a strategy and an action plan to show how the promotion of the strategy will take place. Travel plans were designed to improve children's health and the school environment and have a positive impact on the local community.
Travel plans assessed the needs of the children and the school community in terms of infrastructure, road safety education, cycle training, health and environmental education. Since the withdrawal of sustainable travel grants to local authorities schools have been encouraged to update their Travel Plan annually.
School Travel Plans remain a requirement for schools making planning applications for new or redeveloped sites. This helps to identify the need for highway-based improvements to provide safe access for walkers and cyclists. The plans also demonstrate to parents and the wider community that the new facilities will be used to promote increased safe walking and cycling, car sharing and use of public transport. They can also help to facilitate community acceptance of new build and extensions through their consultative work and ameliorating effects.
Safer travel officers encourage schools to produce a Travel Plan if they have safety related engineering requirements. The level of need can then be established as can the location of where engineering work is required. Engineering issues related to school travel are prioritised where there are identified road safety issues as a result of School Travel Plans.
The Council works with transport operators to develop commercial solutions to transport children to school where there is no entitlement under the Education Transport Policy.
Safety and the perception of risk forms a common block to the willingness of parents, children and schools to encourage more active travel. The Department for Transport provide online educational tools for all these groups to help prepare young people for a more independent and especially car free journey.
Independent Travel Training
Torbay Council offers Independent Travel Training through select local special schools for young people with learning difficulties. This has been very successful in improving not only independence to
and from school but also in developing communication skills and confidence. It has been cited nationally as an example of good practice.
Walking to school
Walking to school has many benefits, it is good for people’s health and the environment, but can also be fun and a great opportunity to socialise.
Children need at least 60 minutes (1 hour) of physical activity every day. The journey to and from school is an ideal time for children and other family members to be active. According to the NHS, 9 out of 10 children could grow up with life threatening diseases such as cancer, Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease partly because they aren’t getting enough exercise. Children who generally travel to and from school by car, bus or other vehicle are more likely to be overweight at age five than those who walk or cycle. Physically active children are also more alert and ready to learn.
1. It saves money
- Walking to school instead of driving is free saves, on average, £400-£600 per year.
2. It develops children’s independence, road safety and social skills
- Walking can help develop independence. Children will learn road safety skills which will help them with the journey to secondary school later in life.
- Children who walk to school have better knowledge of their local area and get to spend more time with their classmates: In a study by Living Streets, 84 per cent of the children who walked to school often meet up with classmates on the way to school, while only 66 per cent of those who were driven to school had the opportunity to do so.
3. It is better for the environment
- People in cars regularly suffer three times as much pollution as pedestrians because they are sitting in the line of the exhaust fumes from the car in front.
- One person switching five journeys of fewer than 2 km a week from the car to walking would reduce their carbon footprint by 86 kg a year.
4. Good for the School
- Walking to school means fewer cars on the road at peak times reducing congestion making the school gates a safer place.
- Increases good relationships with the school and local residents by reducing inconsiderate parking.
- Walking Improves local air quality.
Working with schools
Torbay Council’s School Travel Team is working in with schools to increase levels of sustainable and
active travel on the journey to and from school.
Schools have the opportunity to sign up to Modeshift STARS which is a national awards scheme, set up
to recognise schools that show excellence in supporting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable
travel.
Modeshift STARS monitors travel to school patterns locally, regionally and nationally, including data on
modal shift, carbon reduction and improvements in physical activity levels. The system makes it easy
for schools to plan their activities and upload evidence of actions resulting in the achievement of
nationally recognised accreditation for schools across the country.
There are three levels of accreditation:
- Bronze Level - for schools that deliver an up-to-date STP each year that is delivering the minimum
required standard for Modeshift STARS. - Silver Level – for schools that achieve modal shift away from the car, deliver a whole-school approach and deliver above and beyond the requirements of the basic STP.
- Gold Level – for schools who have excelled with the STP and achieved noticeable modal shift away
from the car by fully embracing sustainable travel as the norm throughout the entire school community.
Walking initiatives include Walk to School Week a national campaign aimed at getting children and
their families walking to school in May each year. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-withus/
walk-to-school
WOW - Walk Once a Week
Living Streets WOW scheme promotes long term travel change behaviour from driving to walking to school. Every child who walks at least once a week earns a highly collectable pin badge every month.
http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-with-us/walk-to-school
Walking Zones
Walking Zones are centred schools and mapped to show zones for 5, 10 and 15 minute walking distances from the school gate(s). This Walking Zone Map can be used as a visual prompt for parents/carers showing them how close they may live to school and how little time it may take to walk.
Families who live within these walking zones can be encouraged to walk or cycle to and from school, while those with longer journeys who choose to drive can be encouraged to park safely outside the inner zone and to walk the last five minutes of their journey, known as Park & Stride.
Park and Stride
Park and Stride encourages parents to park safely outside the 5, 10 or 15 minute walking zone and walk the last 5, 10, 15 minutes of their journey. Park & Stride is particularly good for families that live a long way from school and can’t walk the whole way. It has the added benefit of reducing congestion around the school entrance, making it safer for children to enter their school.
Walking Bus
A Walking Bus is an initiative to encourage more children, accompanied by adults, to walk to school and by doing so reduce traffic and congestion outside schools. Walking as a group and using an agreed route the children are under the supervision of at least 2 responsible adults - a 'driver' and 'conductor' - who are known to the school. Any volunteers involved with a Walking Bus have to complete a police criminal background check.
Some walking buses operate every school day while others operate one or two days a week - this depends on the number of adult volunteers involved.
The Council's Road Safety staff will risk assess routes and provide necessary training for all volunteers. Children and adults involved in a Walking Bus must wear reflective tabards which are supplied free of charge by the Road Safety Office. Walking buses have a positive effect on attendance and punctuality as well as reducing the number of cars arriving at school.
Scoot to School
Getting to school by scooter has become increasingly popular with children, especially with children not yet able to cycle.
- Scooting encourages active travel from an early age and develops skills which will also help with cycling such as steering, stopping and balancing.
- As well as being fun, it encourages children to exercise. Scooting to and from school contributes towards their recommended hour of physical activity each day, enabling them to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Pupils who scoot or cycle are more confident, more independent and perform better at school!
- Scooting also helps reduce the number of cars on the school run, therefore easing congestion at the school gate.
- It can be especially effective with nursery level children who have not yet started cycling to school as it’s faster than walking and fun!
- It’s an ideal form of transport; healthy, environmentally friendly and inexpensive for parents. • Scooting is fun, scooter travel is free, and parents can even join in!
As scooting to school becomes increasingly popular it is vital to ensure that children can handle their scooters competently and that they know how to ride safely and with consideration for others.
School Crossing Patrols
School Crossing Patrol Officers operate at certain places where it can be hazardous or difficult to cross the road. This is a discretionary service, and it remains the responsibility of parents to ensure the safety of children travelling to and from school.
There are 23 School Crossing Patrol sites in Torbay, each of which plays a part in giving parents and children confidence in making active school journeys. The use of a Crossing Patrol is subject to compliance with national criteria that focusses on the numbers of pupils expected to use a site and the number of vehicle movements expected at that location. Flexibility – allowing schools to engage crossing patrols in sites that do not make the basic criteria – exists in the use of volunteer and school (or otherwise) funded patrols.
Educational materials are available together with a School Crossing Patrol Pack for all new pupil intakes at all primary schools. These include items such as a School Crossing Patrol Code, stickers, and bookmark.
Learning to cross the road with the School Crossing Patrol is also an important issue and should be encouraged throughout a child’s time at Primary School. This is encouraged by issuing Reward Cards for children, specifically for when they cross well with the Patrol.
Educational resources are available for use by nurseries, preschool groups, voluntary agencies and youth groups.
“Bikeability”
Bikeability is Cycling Proficiency for the 21st century, designed to give the next generation the skills and confidence to cycle on today's roads. It is available, free of charge, for all schools in Torbay through Torbay Council. Bikeability is intended to be accessible for all children and all schools - including academies and special schools.
Learn to ride - School Year 1 (Age 5-6 years)
This course is for children having difficulty getting onto 2 wheels. It has a 2:1 pupil to instructor ratio and an extremely good success rate of getting children riding independently.
Bikeability Level 1 - School Year 1 (Age 5-6 years)
Training is delivered in a traffic-free environment, where you will learn basic bike handling skills and improve your riding confidence.
Bikeability Level 2 - School Year 5 (Age 7-8 years)
Training is delivered on quiet residential streets close to your home, or school. You will learn how to cycle confidently on-road, amongst real traffic.
Bikeability Level 3- School Year 7 (Age 11-12 years)
Training is delivered on roads with larger volumes of traffic travelling at higher speeds. You will learn how to negotiate more complex junctions on a route of your choice, usually your journey to school or work.
Cycle with your child to school Training
A session focussed on teaching adults how to ride to school with children. A bespoke school specific half day training session, including route planning.
Get Your School Cycling
Find out from your head teacher if Bikeability is already delivered in your school and ask when it is scheduled for. If there aren’t any plans yet, get in touch with the Torbay Councils Cycling Officer on Tel: 01803 207726.
Cycle training for all
Cycle training to all ages and abilities will be provided, building upon the experiences and complementing the ongoing Bikeability programme running successfully in all Torquay schools. It will utilise the new closed road circuit at the Torbay Cyclo Park, backed by British Cycling, as well as providing instructor led cycle routes on the expanding network of off-road routes. This element is well aligned with the Prime Ministers Cycling Revolution and the Government’s ambition for cycling. It directly achieves one of the fronts of cycle proofing, namely cycle training.
FREE Adult Cycle Training in Torbay
Starting Out
If you never learnt to cycle, help is at hand! Torbay’s cycling instructors will be more than happy to help you get cycling. Don’t worry about being a novice; instructors can help you get your balance and learn to control your bike – sessions will be in a traffic free space.
You may wish to make your first course a one-to-one session so that you can really concentrate on mastering the basics, but if you’d prefer to learn in a group you can ask about group sessions too. Instructors can also arrange training for a family, a group of friends or at your workplace with your colleagues. Cycle and helmet hire available for Learn to Ride Sessions
Building Confidence
If you’ve recently rediscovered your enthusiasm for cycling and would appreciate some hints and tips on how to make safe on-road journeys, a few sessions will help you refresh your skills and provide you with the confidence needed to tackle the harder parts of your journeys.
Just let your instructor know what you’d like to focus on – it might be a new route to work, the way to the shops or in and around a particularly busy area. Don’t forget you can request training with a friend or a group.
Advanced Skills
There are also options for confident and experienced cyclists. Torbay’s Instructors can help you to hone your cycling skills to cycle with confidence on roads with more traffic or more complex road layouts. The instructor can also help you with route planning as there may be alternatives that you weren’t aware of.
Cycling for people with disabilities
Adapted cycles make cycling accessible to all. There are a wide range of disability cycles that suit people with a variety of learning and physical disabilities, as well as health issues.
Torbay Council’s Velopark in Paignton has expanded its bike hire collection and can now provide specially adapted bikes for use by disabled people.
Bikes that are now available include specially made trikes, a tandem and junior and senior recumbent bikes. Wheels for all will also be loaning a hand cycle, a quad cycle and tricycles.
If you would like to try these new bikes Freetrike are holding sessions every other Tuesday and they are a great opportunity to explore disabled cycling using the excellent facilities at the Velopark. You can be collected from your car door and introduced to the best available equipment and adaptations for your needs.
Code of Conduct
There is a Code of Conduct for pupils who travel on school transport. It is intended to encourage responsible behaviour while on buses and other forms of transport., It is an example of good practice and sends a signal to pupils and parents that buses are safe for pupils to use and that bullying or bad behaviour will not be tolerated.
Cycle to Work Scheme
Torbay Council’s cycle to work scheme enables employees to buy a new bike and make BIG savings through the Government’s Cycle to Work initiative. The scheme saves the employee the VAT on the bike purchase and pays the net cost from gross pay, saving income tax and national insurance. As part of our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint and in support of our travel plan; Torbay Council has signed up with Cyclescheme to provide tax free bikes to our employees.
Torbay Cycle Guide and Map
The Torbay Cycle Guide and Map promotes cycling in Torbay and identifies traffic free and off road routes, advisory cycle routes and planned traffic free cycle lanes. Cycles routes - Torbay Council
Torbay Cycle Forum
The Torbay Cycle Forum is a group of people who represent many cycling interest groups. Issues relating to cycling and children and young people are regularly discussed.