INTRODUCTION

School Travel Plans (STPs) form part of the Government’s Travelling To School Initiative. This initiative aims to strengthen the partnership between the education, health and transport sectors to ensure improvements in road safety around schools, safer, more enjoyable and more sustainable travel to school, improvements in public health by promoting walking and cycling, and reducing car dependency on the ‘school run.’ An STP provides the means by which individual schools can help achieve these objectives. The Government proposes that every school in England will have an STP by 2010.

On the Isle of Wight, the school run can account for 10% of road traffic at peak times. As well as contributing to congestion and environmental problems, we are now seeing an increase in children’s health problems such as obesity and asthma. Further, children are more at risk from road traffic accidents as their traffic awareness is not as good as it could be. They are also disadvantaged by having little or no experience of independent travel, whether that be walking, cycling or using public transport.

The aim of a School Travel Plan is not to remove the car from the road but to reduce it’s use, by introducing a range of measures which offer real benefits to the school, the pupils, parents and the wider community.

The Isle of Wight has a dedicated School Travel Plan Advisor who is there to guide you through all stages in the development of your STP. They are also the link to a whole team of experts including:

Your first point of contact in every case is the School Travel Plan Advisor:

To access details of Driver Training, Cycle Training, In-car Safety, Kerbcraft (Child Pedestrian Training) please click below: