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Satellite Dish

OUR DATA 

Today's school run is hugely problematic. It not only has a big impact on London peak time traffic, but children already walking and cycling are faced with road danger & air pollution.  We've developed a school travel dashboard for primary pupils to provide more insight.

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Our Dashboard

The average driving rate for a London primary pupil travelling under 1 mile to school is 7%, that increases to 65% for distances of 1-2 miles [National Travel Survey]; the distance pupils have to travel to school is a huge determinant of how they travel. So, we applied these London driving rates to actual London primary pupil travel distances. The dashboard below enables you to better understand school run travel for primary schools, and work out which school trips are most likely to be made sustainably and which are likely to be driven.  You can take a look from a city-wide view, or break it down to Inner or Outer London, borough, ward, school type and school. These insights can help us better understand how many primary pupils are already travelling sustainably, which justifies the need for safe and healthy streets. Additionally, it can help to identify the areas and trip lengths generating the most school run driving,  which can inform solutions. 

Our discoveries about primary school run

How we modelled the analysis

How can this data help you? 

HOW TO USE THE Dashboard

On each panel [green tabs], you can filter to select a school, school type, ward or borough of interest.  This will display the analysis on the tab for that selection.  Check out our use cases below for how to use the data for your area of interest. We've also created a healthy streets resources section on how to use data to strengthen your campaigns and a User Guide  for help interpreting the data. 

"We're campaigning for healthier, safer streets in our borough"

Select your borough as you go through the tabs/panels. You will be able to get an estimate for how many pupils are already travelling sustainably in your borough and this can be very powerful in making the case for safe & healthy streets like school streets. Additionally you can find our more about the school run car trips that are taking place,  which areas have the highest propensity for school run driving and what distance lengths are being travelled. Please see our healthy streets resources section for ideas and case studies.

"I'm a parent at a school and I really want the area at drop off and pick up to be safer"

"I'm a ward councillor - my residents are always complaining about school run traffic"

Select your ward as you go through the tabs/panels. As you navigate through, you will be able to understand how far pupils are travelling to the schools in your ward, how your ward compares to others and what schools in your ward will have the highest propensity for school run driving.  You can also check your neighbouring wards for the same -  as there may be a high number of school run car journeys travelling through your ward to access adjacent schools. You can also use our healthy streets resources section for ideas and case studies.

biking to school with helmets

Select your school and ward as you go through the tabs/panels. As you navigate through, you will be able to understand how many pupils are already travelling sustainably to your school who are being endangered. Use this data to strengthen your campaigns for safer and healthier streets around the school such as school streets or 20mph speed limits. You will also be able to see how many pupils are being driven to school, and how far, to inform what type of solutions may change their behaviour.  Please check out our healthy streets resources section for ideas. 

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About the dashboard

What does our dashboard show

The dashboard focuses on London primary pupil travel. We picked primary pupils first, because this is where driving rates in London are highest. We have modelled the distances that pupils are travelling to schools across London, and applied the NTS school driving rates to these distances.  We have included independent schools so we can get a full picture, and have modelled their pupils distances, since these aren't disclosed publicly. This provides insight into how primary pupils are most likely to be travelling to their schools throughout London.  The information is provided by school, by school type, by ward and by borough, and comparisons are also provided. 

 

We advise all users to review our Methodology tab for a full understanding of modelling assumptions and also our User Guide for help navigating the dashboard insights. 

Key Findings

We've summarised the key themes on primary pupil travel that have come through from our model. From pupil travel modes across distances and boroughs and how school types have an impact. Find out about our insights here.

Caveats

These are modelled driving rates subject to the caveats and assumptions listed in our methodology.  The model is derived using estimated pupil travel distances and average London school run driving rates.  It will therefore not account for factors that will cause variation from average driving rates such as car ownership levels,  safe availability of walking & cycling alternatives,  accessibility of public transport, congestion zone, school culture etc. 

Why did we create IT?

We have been campaigning locally in Dulwich for safe and healthy streets for over 5 years. Dulwich now has extensive areas that prioritise walking and cycling during school pick up and drop off and a record number of school streets. But it has been a long road. In our campaigning, we found that emphasising that the majority of pupils are making sustainable journeys was really powerful E.g. "there are 1,000 primary pupils walking or cycling to schools in West Dulwich and they deserve safe and healthy journeys".   There are also a huge number of pupils at school in Dulwich at a wide mix of schools with different journey lengths. Understanding this has hugely helped to inform the convenient, sustainable solutions for parents needed such as cargo bikes and independent school mini buses for primary pupils. We had to do a lot of data crunching to be able to take impactful action within our local area, so we created our London primary school travel dashboard to save this step for others.  Huge thanks to our funders Foundation for Integrated Transport for believing in this project.  

Any questions? 

Please feel free to give us an email at hello@solvetheschoolrun.org

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