Resources / Tools StartUp Guide: How to get your school community mobilised behind safer, child-friendly streets. Changing the school run feels daunting, but you aren't alone. Use this guide to connect with other parents and reclaim the streets around your school. Step 1: Find your allies It’s easy to feel a bit isolated, like no one else notices or cares, but we can assure you this IS NOT the case. Other parents are worried about the same dangers you see. Connect with 2–3 like-minded parents who share your concerns. Action: Strike up a conversation at the school gate or on the walk home, grab a coffee with a parent you know. Keep it light and informal, to get the lay of the land. Also see: How to chat about school traffic with other parents without the drama - here . Step 2: Expand the conversation Now you've got a bit more confidence and some others on board it's time to talk to more parents and encourage your allies to do the same. You’ll be surprised how many parents share your vision for a safer, healthier school run. More school gate chats, walk and talks or mention your concerns in the class WhatsApp group. Comment: "All this traffic chaos makes me a bit worries about kids getting hurt” Also See: School run conversation starters (coming soon) Step 3: Launch a SOLVE WhatsApp group This is where your community grows, shares ideas, and forms plans. It doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to exist. Through the online WhatsApp community, you’ll also be able to receive supportive messages from our central hub, as well as specialised peer support for your school. Action: Create the group using our guide and add your first 2–3 allies. Also See: How to set up and maintain a school WhatsApp group - (coming soon). Step 4: Engage your PTA and governors Have a chat with one of your PTA trustees or organisers, explain that there are many families who feel worried about safety outside the gates. They should have some helpful tips on how to communicate to the parent community and who in the school staff or office team might be able to support your efforts. If you can, it's also worth having a chat with a sympathetic parent governor to let them know the parent concerns and appetite for change. Step 5: Keep the school in the loop Schools and headteachers are busy and it shouldn’t have to be their job to keep children safe on their route to school. However, building a good relationship with school staff is really helpful. Action: Send a polite email introducing your group and your aim to make the school journey safer and encourage walking and cycling. You could let them know you're keen to support the school complete the TFL Travel for Life program (more on this coming soon). Step 6: Advertise your group Get the word out. The more parents who join, the louder your voice. Action: Post this in your school or class newsletter or WhatsApp: "Would you like the area outside our school to be safer? A safer crossing on your walk to school? You’re not alone! Join our Solve The School Run group to help create safer journeys to schools". [Link to your school SOLVE WhatsApp group]" Step 7: Show, don’t just tell Start an Instagram account. This is a great way to show the systemic issues of road danger and pollution that children are exposed to on their school run. Use it to document the reality children face and celebrate your progress and inspiring change throughout your borough. Also See: How to set up and use a Solve Instagram account (coming soon) Celebrate your progress You’re up and running! Take a moment to acknowledge what you’ve built. It's huge progress. We'll be adding more resources on how you can support your school promoting active travel, run a school fair and other easy ways your group can get momentum going for safe, healthy streets. And at the right time, you'll want to think about engaging your politicians and having a chat to your local councillors. Also See: Getting political commitment for child friendly streets - here .

Resources / Tools London primary school travel dashboard Data on how pupils are travelling to school in London can be incredibly useful for campaigning, but hard to come by! So, we modelled pupil travel for all London primary schools. Check out your local school, get the insights for your borough or take a look at city-wide trends. It’s all there! About the 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 panels enable 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. London key findings Across London level our data modelling shows that: 75% of primary pupils are walking and cycling to school, which is 600,000 pupils. 25% of London primary pupils, which is 200,000 pupils are driven to school and we estimate these journeys make up 480,000 car trips per day. School run car use is most prevalent in the distance range of 1-2 miles to school. Check out more insights on the London school run in our key findings. Also see - you can read our Key London Findings in full on our page here. (coming soon) Using your local data to boost your safer streets for kids campaigns. Parents - use the data insights to make your community campaigns stronger, clearer and more persuasive. Check out use cases here (coming soon). Council officers and ward councillors - use the data insights to justify your school street or safer street programs. Check out our use cases here (coming soon). User tips On each panel, you can use the filters to select a school, school type, ward or borough of interest. This will update the analysis on the panel for that selection. You don't have to select every filter, you can jump straight to the filter of interest E.g. if you want to select a school you can just go to the school filter, you don't have to first select all the other filters first. For help understanding what the analysis on each panel displays, you can refer to our User Guide. Methodology The data model calculates pupil travel distances using 2022 pupil catchment information and then estimates a model of travel for each distance band using London averages from the National Travel Survey. Since the mode of travel is modelled using London averages, this method will not account for factors such as car ownership, public transport, school culture which will in reality affect the driving rates for each borough/school. Full details can be found on the methodology page here (coming soon).

Resources / Tools London Borough Groups Hub: Let's build safer, healthier streets together We're building parent powered groups across London boroughs. Thanks to parents like you, during the May 2026 council elections, leading parties across our target boroughs of Hackney, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark signed up to our #StreetsForKids manifesto. These asks were for effective school streets, improved access to family cargo bikes and child-friendly kerbsides. Now, the real work starts: turning those political pledges into safer, healthier streets. We're building parent-powered groups across these boroughs to hold our new councils to their word. We need local eyes on the ground and passionate parents in the loop to make sure these promises lead to real change around our schools. Want to see the difference we're making in your area? Dive in to find out what's happening, and how you can join a borough group on WhatsApp. Interested in starting a group for your borough? You can request a new group for your area here .

Resources / Tools School Mobilisers Hub: All the resources you need to get your school community behind a safer school run. School Mobilisers start the change! They are everyday parents just like you who start to highlight the issues around the school and bring the school community together to think about change. They celebrate all the amazing walking, cycling and public transport that is happening. By sparking these local conversations, you’re playing a vital role in creating safer streets for kids. You’ll find helpful resources to get started and maintain momentum at your school below. Not signed up yet? Find out a bit more about what it involves here , and sign yourself up to be a School Mobiliser here , so we can support you. Already mobilised and ready to start engaging your politicians? Head over to our campaigning hub here .

Explore our services and get in touch Our Services 01. Product Photography Enhance your product appeal with professional photography services tailored to showcase your items in the best light. Our team captures high-quality images suitable for online stores, catalogs, and marketing campaigns. This service helps attract more customers and improves conversion rates through visually compelling content. Show more 02. E-Commerce Site Setup Create an engaging and user-friendly online store tailored to your business needs. Our setup includes platform selection, design customization, and basic product listing. This service enables you to reach a broader audience and increase sales through a professional digital storefront. Show more 03. Social Media Branding Build a strong social media presence with customized branding services. We design branded visuals, profile templates, and content plans to engage your target audience effectively. This service increases brand visibility and attracts new followers through cohesive visual identity. Show more

The Evidence 1.0 About the 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 panels enable 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. 2.0 HOW THIS data CAN help your active travel programs COUNCIL officers and ward councillors If your remit as a council officer or councillor involves school streets or active travel, you can use the data insights in the dashboard to justify your school street or sustainable travel programmes. FOR COUNCILS Parents and Campaigners Do you want a safer area outside your school at drop off and pick up? Would you like to see a bike bus or a walking line? Or perhaps you are simply pulling your hair out at the school run traffic on your local roads? You can use the data insights to make your community campaigns stronger, clearer and more persuasive. FOR CAMPAIGNERS 3.0 London Key Findings Across London level our data modelling shows that: 75% of primary pupils are walking and cycling to school, which is 600,000 pupils. 25% of London primary pupils, which is 200,000 pupils are driven to school and we estimate these journeys make up 480,000 car trips per day. School run car use is most prevalent in the distance range of 1-2 miles to school. Check out more insights on the London school run in our key findings. KEY FINDINGS 4.0 Tips For Using The Dashboard On each panel, you can use the filters to select a school, school type, ward or borough of interest. This will update the analysis on the panel for that selection. You don't have to select every filter, you can jump straight to the filter of interest E.g. if you want to select a school you can just go to the school filter, you don't have to first select all the other filters first. For help understanding what the analysis on each panel displays, you can refer to our User Guide. USER GUIDE 5.0 Modelling Methodology The data model calculates pupil travel distances using 2022 pupil catchment information and then estimates a model of travel for each distance band using London averages from the National Travel Survey. Since the mode of travel is modelled using London averages, this method will not account for factors such as car ownership, public transport, school culture which will in reality affect the driving rates for each borough/school. We hope to improve on this in future versions. Full details can be found on the methodology page. METHODOLOGY

Subscribe to Solve the School Run updates for campaign wins, resources, and local actions to make streets safer and give children freedom. We'll keep you posted Get the latest news from Solve The School Run straight to your email inbox. Our email updates have all our news! Campaign wins, helpful resources, real-life success stories, behind the scenes intel, plus details of how you can get involved in your area to make the roads safer for children. Enter your email address below to subscribe. And do give us a follow on socials. Subscribe to our newsletter First name Last name Email* Submit

Discover our school and borough WhatsApp groups and see how connecting with local parents helps everyday families drive real change for safer streets. Connect with your local SOLVE community Want to connect with parents and residents in your area who feel the same? Our local WhatsApp groups are the best way to share ideas, ask questions and feel supported in taking real steps towards safer, healthier, streets for kids. Every local group links directly to our central Solve team. That means you’ll also get direct support from us, campaign updates and the latest resources coming through. A supportive grassroots network where each local group inspires the whole. London school groups School SOLVE groups are an essential way to connect with like-minded parents at your school, to share ideas, and build momentum. A place to support each other, mobilise your community and get your local councillors engaged with creating street improvements around your school gates, from zebra crossings to car-free school streets. Our school groups are growing fast in London which is so exciting. You can search to see if your school already has a WhatsApp group, or get our support in setting one up. Join my local Whatsapp London borough groups Borough SOLVE groups are parents and residents from the same borough, connecting together to work on getting the borough-wide policies in place that enable the school level change. For example when it comes to street infrastructure change like school streets, boroughs will typically run a few select trial schools, and then develop a policy around whether they will go ahead with a wider roll out and what schools will be included in what timeframes. Solve borough groups are instrumental in ensuring these policies are far reaching so that as many families as possible across the borough can have safer, healthier school runs. Our borough groups are also developing at speed in London which is really exciting, if yours isn’t listed you can request one, we add new borough groups in phased roll outs throughout the year. Join my local Whatsapp

Questions Hub Our expanding hub of answers to your most common questions. Why are oversized SUVs a lethal threat to our kids How to talk about school traffic with other parents without the drama

It's not our parenting, it's our streets that are causing these issues. Resources / Questions How to talk about school traffic with other parents without the drama Bringing up the chaos outside the school gate can feel like walking into a minefield. You don’t want to be that parent, but you also want safer, cleaner streets for your children. Here is how to have those conversations without putting anyone’s back up. Start with the like-minded Don’t try to change the world in one go. Start with the parents who are already on your wavelength. Once you think they’re up for it, get them on a WhatsApp group focusing on road danger around the school. Look for: 👉The cycle-commuters: Parents already cycling to school are natural allies. They know the streets and understand the issues. 👉Cargo bike families: They’ve already made the switch to cleaner travel. They are more vulnerable to poor driving and are probably very alert to the issue. 👉Climate-conscious parents: Probably already worried about air pollution, you can connect over your shared desire for a healthier environment for the kids. 👉Annoyed local residents: Often the school’s neighbours are frustrated by the traffic and danger that happens outside their house twice a day. If you can make friends with them, they can be helpful allies. Local councillors are more likely to take notice of residents as they are their constituents. Parents at the local school may live in another ward and therefore just visit the area (even if it is twice a day!). Once you have a few people onboard, you can broaden your reach. Also see - Check out our Conversation Openers page for more ideas (coming soon). Normalise your perspective We need to make safe, car-free travel the new normal. Small, consistent nudges help shift the culture at the school gate: 👉Stay focused: Keep the narrative on child safety - it’s tough for anyone to argue with that. Ask your school to include regular updates on local danger zones in their weekly newsletter. If there’s been a near miss or collision near school, make sure you report it to the school staff. We take other risks to children seriously, so why should road danger be different? 👉Amplify the positive: As well as highlighting the issues, it’s really important to amplify the positive. Take time to celebrate the families who are walking and cycling to school. A good way to do this is by highlighting schemes like 'Walk to School' week or similar in the school newsletter (more on this coming soon). Aim for one or two school newsletter updates a term celebrating the benefits of active travel, this helps to start to make walking and cycling feel like the default choice, not a chore. Keep it systemic, not personal This is the golden rule. Avoid finger-pointing at other parents. When you make it personal, walls go up. Instead, focus on the system. These are good ways of highlighting that; 👉Our streets are failing: It’s not about bad parenting; it’s about infrastructure that prioritises driver convenience over children’s safety. 👉Drivers are caught in a trap: If parents drive, it may be because they have to. Long work hours or hidden disabilities can mean they feel like they have little choice. We want systemic change that makes walking and cycling (and all the health benefits attached) possible for everyone. 👉No problem!: Rather than constantly focusing on the issues, make sure you also highlight the solutions. School streets reduce road danger and air pollution. Everyone wants that for their children - even parents that drive. When we focus on creating a system that works for everyone, we stop blaming each other and start building the streets our children deserve. Reducing the traffic around a school isn’t a tweak. It’s a seismic shift in culture and infrastructure. It takes time. But it is possible, and when it happens it’s amazing! Focus on the positives, and you’ll bring people with you. Tales from the school gate 👉"But I don’t think any of the other parents feel like I do" “That’s what we thought. But once we started running the occasional stall at the school’s Christmas Fair or Sports Day, with games or colouring in for the kids, and traffic chat for the parents, we discovered we weren’t alone. Many (most?) parents felt the same way, but didn’t know what to do about it. So we invited them to join the WhatsApp group. Some of them ignored the messages, but many of them read and ‘hearted’ them, others turned out to be really knowledgeable, and we even found some as obsessed as we were! We just needed to start the conversation.” -Claire, Lambeth 👉“I don’t want to be the school’s ‘active travel enthusiast’ and shunned in the playground” “I was really reluctant to become the school nag - sighing and eyerolling when parents drove past. I wanted to have fun, meet new friends, not go around judging everyone. Plus, shouldn’t I be wearing a tracksuit and a bike helmet permanently? And that just wasn’t my style. So I always kept an eye on that element of it. Yes, there were rainy meet ups outside the school with councillors, but there were also fun evenings at the pub, coffee at each other's houses, we kept it varied so different types of people would feel comfortable. The group really developed and it showed that we were having fun, so people wanted to be part of it.” -Tom, Lambeth 👉“There’s already an established pro car lobby at my kids’ school, and I don’t want to position myself against them” “We had the same. It’s not surprising. Cars are the norm, we’ve had decades being told they are the keys to independence, so when you start saying maybe that isn’t true, people get upset. I chose to sidestep any confrontation. We weren’t anti-car, we were just having fun on our weekly bike buses. They became really popular, and were publicised in the newsletters - alongside their health benefits - and the norm started to shift. We were modelling the alternative to driving and it looked like fun!” -Julie, Lambeth

The bigger the bonnet the bigger the blind spot - how families have been sold a lie about SUV safety Resources / Questions Why are oversized SUVs a lethal threat to our kids You feel it every morning at the school gate. The roads feel tighter, the air heavier, and the vehicles towering over our children look more like tanks than family cars. It’s not just a feeling. It’s a crisis. This is "carspreading"—a dangerous phenomenon where vehicles are growing longer, wider, and - lethally - higher. The average bonnet height increases by 0.5cm every single year. We are letting our streets be swallowed by vehicles that are getting bigger, while our children’s independence is shrinking. What’s the problem? We’re sold these massive vehicles on the promise of "safety." And while the driver inside might feel secure, the child outside is the potential victim. The stats are brutal: a child is three times more likely to be killed if struck by a large SUV than by a standard passenger car. This isn't an accident; it's a design failure. 1. The Blind Spot Crisis Drivers in high-bonneted vehicles face a terrifying problem: they often cannot see what’s directly in front of them. A driver in a massive SUV will be unable to see a four year-old child standing in their path. In the area around a school, those few seconds of lost visibility mean the difference between a child walking home and a tragedy. 2. The Physics of Impact The design of these vehicles is fundamentally violent. Traditional cars have lower, sloping bonnets that sweep a pedestrian onto the hood or away from the impact. SUVs and massive trucks have tall, blunt fronts. They hit a child directly in the head or chest and push them under the car. That is why the fatality rate for children is so much higher. And the more common these cars become, the greater the threat they are to our kids on their daily journeys. We are losing our cities This isn't just about safety; it's about the space our children have to exist. Public space is being cannibalised for oversized metal boxes. The scale of this land-grab is staggering. In London, the 800,000 SUVs now on the road occupy the same footprint as the entire Borough of Kensington and Chelsea - space that could be used for homes, parks, or community life. We are sacrificing our public realm to accommodate private vehicles, when according to the 2021 census 42% of Londoners don’t have a car. And although it might feel like everyone on the school run is driving there in an enormous car, that is not the case. In London 75% of primary school children are walking, cycling or taking public transport, but they are doing it surrounded by cars. A minority of children are driven to school, but the nature of cars - in particular SUVs - is that they are bigger, more cumbersome and take up much more space than people, so they dominate. We need a change - now Twenty years ago, SUVs comprised just 3% of cars on our roads; today, that figure is 30%. This isn't just a change in consumer preference - it's a deliberate shift in the market. Manufacturers are deprioritising safer, appropriately sized vehicles in favour of massive, high-bonnet SUVs. This trend is a public safety emergency. We need politicians and decision-makers to act now to signal a change in policy and reverse this trend. As the number of these oversized vehicles increases, so too do deaths and injuries. We need to reverse 'carspreading'. What next? From bonnet height limits to enabling cargo bikes - check out what we think the solutions ar e here (coming soon). Get involved. Join us! We’re a network of parents who believe in a better way, but need your voice to make it happen. Here are quick and easy ways you can get involved. 👉 Sign up to our newsletter 👉Join a borough WhatsApp group 👉Check out our Cargo Collective program Sources: https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/ever-higher-the-rise-of-bonnet-height-and-the-case-to-cap-it https://www.motortradenews.com/news/drivers-of-largest-vehicles-unable-to-see-children-as-old-as-nine-raising-road-safety-concern/ https://findingspress.org/article/141647-do-sports-utility-vehicles-suvs-cause-more-severe-injuries-to-pedestrians-and-cyclists-than-passenger-cars-in-the-case-of-a-crash-findings-from-gr

Get in touch with Solve the School Run. Reach our team for general enquiries, media questions, or local group support for safer school streets. Get in touch with us Want to get involved? Head over to our Get Involved page - you'll find lots of different ways you can join us in making change. Already mobilising with us and need help? Contacting us directly on WhatsApp is best or you can drop us an email. hello@solvetheschoolrun.org Media enquires For media enquiries please contact our email below which we monitor closely during working hours. media@solvetheschoolrun.org London Borough Groups For questions about the work our borough groups are doing, head over to our Borough Groups page where you can find the email for the borough you're looking for and our borough leads will respond to you.