Finding safer paths to school

Allowing children to ride a bike to school is a safer option than dropping them off at the front gate according to Bicycle Network’s Alex Carpenter.

Mr Carpenter and a team from the network were in Orange teaching school children the benefits of leading an active lifestyle.

As part of Orange City Council’s Active Travel Plan, the network aims to increase the number of children in Orange riding a bike, walking or skating to school from about 20 per cent to 80 per cent.

The network designed safe and accessible routes to three schools in Orange in a bid to encourage parents to allow their children to ride, walk or skate to school, the remainder of the schools will be visited throughout the year.

The main barrier stopping parents from allowing their children to make their own way to school was a fear their child might be approached by strangers, or that they may be involved in a collision with a car, Mr Carpenter said.

“By reducing the number of cars at the front gate of the school it’s actually making it a lot safer,” Mr Carpenter said.

And as for the fear a child might be targeted by a stranger he says the routes designed by the network mean “there’s safety in numbers”.

“The program has been going in Victoria for 10 years and we’ve been able to increase the number of kids riding, walking or skating to school from about 20 per cent to about 50 per cent,” he said.

“In the 1970s about 80 per cent of kids rode or walked to school and we want to get it back up to that level.”

In 2015, the council commissioned a schools’ Active Travel Plan to find out how students travelled to and from school and what were the barriers facing children and their parents when it came to active travel.

The report found three per cent of children cycle to school, two per cent used a scooter and 17 per cent walked.

The main barriers included;

• Parents concerned about traffic and availability of low risk routes to school, poorly designed bike lanes or shared paths near the school.
• Disconnected or incomplete bike lanes.
• The student lives too far from school.
• Concerns about weather.

The Bicycle Network’s safer paths to school program is designed to combat some of these issues while feedback from council’s Active Travel Plan is collated and presented to the council in the coming months.

RIDE TO SCHOOL: Bicycle Network Ride2School coordinators Alex Carpenter and Veronica Nunez with Calare Public School students at the launch of its Orange Ride2School program.