Norfolk Gets School Streets – What About Warwickshire?
Just a quick thing...
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Norfolk is one of the latest counties to start trialing School Streets – where roads outside school gates are closed to most motor traffic around the school run hours. Schemes can vary in how they’re implemented but have the benefit of making the school journey safer and more attractive for those travelling by foot, scooter, or cycle, and enable some who currently drive to make the switch to active travel.
We need to be doing the same here in Warwickshire. Teams such as Warwickshire County Council Road Safety Education and Active Travel may promote the concept of walking, scooting, and cycling, but encouragement can only go so far (not very far at all). We need physical changes to our infrastructure to actually enable more people to make the change. For too many school drop-off and pick-up involves congested roads, pavement parking, obstructed junctions, engines idling, drivers on phones or otherwise distracted etc – everything that makes some people consider active travel unsafe, stressful, and/or unattractive. School Streets are an essential part of the solution to reducing these hazards.
When will Warwickshire County Council make some moves on this and start some county-wide trial schemes? School Streets are not a one-size-fits-all solution. We need to start running trials, coupled with studies of existing schemes across the UK, to determine what works and how best to implement ideas locally.
If the council doesn’t start soon, it risks being left behind and failing in its objectives to enable more people to make local trips by foot, scooter, or cycle.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/traffic-to-be-banned-around-norfolk-schools-8686486
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