A secondary school and its local community take an holistic approach to reduce the environmental impact of the school run.
The journey to and from school is responsible for nearly a quarter of all cars on the road during morning rush hour. Aside from environmental issues, car travel is also contributing to the rise in childhood obesity as fewer children walk or cycle to school.
Currently, only two per cent of children cycle to school in this country. Sustrans, the UK's leading sustainable transport charity, hopes to rectify this situation with Bike It ? a groundbreaking project that has already quadrupled the number of children cycling to its target schools.
To demonstrate the project's success, we travel to Hummersknott School and Language College in Darlington where the number of children cycling has risen by 70 per cent over the last two years.
Useful websites
The sustainable transport charity works on practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport
Department for Transport: School Travel
DfT page promoting safe and healthy journeys and offering links to wider transport-related research documents
Information on a ground-breaking project that has quadrupled the number of children cycling to its target schools
Useful website providing information to help develop your school's travel plan
TeacherNet: School Travel Plans
Good summary of what's involved in creating a school travel plan plus a number of related resources
Information on the long term initiative that helps young people and their schools to be healthy
Hummersknott School and Language College
Website for the Darlington secondary school currently taking part in the Sustrans Bike It project
