CHILDREN'S ATTITUDES TO SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT
CHAPTER ELEVEN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
POLICY AND PROMOTION
11.1 There is a need to target children of different ages and genders, and parents of different ages, with specific messages that build on these groups' priorities for and demands on transport, for example:
- Boys may be more responsive to health and fitness messages.
- Girls will be more open to the social aspects and opportunities of travel and, to a lesser degree, environmental concerns.
- Social contact during travel is more important in rural areas.
- Older children are more focused on practicalities such as journey time and flexibility, that are usually considered 'adults' concerns'.
- Attitudes towards bus travel are likely to be developed through experiences of school bus travel.
- Environmental messages are unlikely to be successful in promoting behavioural change, except with primary children and their parents.
- For boys, the acceptability of cycling is substantially greater than for girls.
- Buses and walking are viewed much more positively by girls.
11.2 Many schools are starting to consider how children travel to school and how their journeys can be improved, linking with issues such as health, environment and safety, and including School Travel Plan development. This requires significant levels of input by staff and pupils and it is important that this is recognised by others. The inspection process is one key way in which such recognition can happen, through the development of HMIE guidance, including "How good is our school?"
11.3 As in previous studies, young people identified a number of practical improvements that could be made to existing transport systems: cycle lanes, safer walking routes, bus fare information and more evening services, and more sympathetic, trained bus drivers.
SCHOOLS
11.4 There are a number of ways that schools can become involved in whole school initiatives which support learning about sustainable transport in its widest sense, including active travel e.g. Eco Schools and Health Promoting Schools.
11.5 Schools should be encouraged to include active and sustainable travel as an element of the wider initiatives that they take part in. One way to do this is to write a School Travel Plan as part of work they are already involved in.
11.6 As policy develops, however, including the recommendation that all schools should prepare a school travel plan (Scottish School Travel Advisory Group Report), there should be a growing recognition of the importance of STPs and the cross-sectoral benefits they provide to school life. This recognition could come through the inspection process and be linked with other developments such as New Community Schools, Citizenship, and Health Promoting Schools.
11.7 Schools are required to address many issues, some of which are compulsory and some optional. The New Community Schools approach will be rolled-out to all schools in Scotland by 2007 and all schools will become Health Promoting Schools by 2007. It is important therefore that sustainable transport as part of the journey to school is addressed within these initiatives, possibly through the development of a School Travel Plan. Although initially, the emphasis will be on the journey to school, the learning process that children will undertake should enable them to transfer what they have learnt to other journeys that they make. Healthy and sustainable journeys have a strong link with theme two (teenage transition) of Improving Health in Scotland - the Challenge.
11.8 It is important to promote the links between different initiatives to avoid schools feeling overloaded. Encouraging healthy, sustainable transport through the development of a School Travel Plan is an important part of many initiatives including Eco-schools, Health Promoting Schools, Safe Routes to Schools and others.
INFLUENCING PARENTS AND COMMUNITIES
11.9 It is important to inform parents of the issues related to the increasing level of journeys made by car by young people, for example loss of independence and reduced opportunity for regular exercise. The hazards of walking and cycling should be set against the health risks of sedentary lifestyles, both for children and their parents.
11.10 Some parents need to be better informed of the mental and physical health benefits of walking to school for both themselves and their children. This could be tied in with the 'Healthy Living' brand adopted by the Scottish Executive.
11.11 School Travel Plan initiatives need to be aware of the demands reflected in parents' travel patterns and develop appropriate local initiatives.
11.12 Supporting parents by involving them with their children's learning is an aspect of New Community Schools. If the journey to school and road safety are addressed as part of NCS, then parents will be less likely to teach their children messages which conflict with what they learn at school.
11.13 The problem of road safety is one of the main reasons parents give for their reluctance to allow their children to walk or cycle to school. Parents need to be informed about and involved in what their children are learning through new initiatives such as Streetsense if these concerns are to be addressed.
11.14 To improve acceptance and reduce conflicts, a "whole-community" approach to travel behaviour change is recommended, such as that investigated in the "Step Change" programme pilot. Common messages should be delivered in workplaces and via community organisations; through further, higher and lifelong education and other public services such as healthcare. This will also help reinforce the notion that schools are not solely responsible for delivering messages to young people.
CURRICULUM OPPORTUNITIES AND RESOURCES
11.15 There are clearly a number of opportunities within the 5-14 National Guidelines to teach about issues relating to sustainable development and transport in general. The opportunities, however, are not immediately obvious and specific sustainable transport resources would be useful. Curriculum planners and classroom teachers should be encouraged to use sustainable transport as an example. Some suggestions are given in Appendix 6.
11.16 A useful resource base would contain examples of schemes of work and case studies where sustainable transport has been successfully integrated into the curriculum and whole-school initiatives. For example, curriculum projects might be located within the classroom planning section of the National Grid for Learning website or within the case studies section of the Education for Citizenship website.
11.17 Curriculum resources might usefully consider how the wider issues which lead to less sustainable travel patterns might be addressed in the classroom. These may include how current lifestyles have developed in complexity in terms of their geographic reach over recent decades.
11.18 It will be important to develop resources for the range of informal education providers working with young people, especially in the teenage years.