School Streets: Reducing children’s exposure to toxic air and road danger

Many children in the UK are exposed to levels of air pollution that have life-long impacts on their health and development, and this can be deadly. The UK government has a legal duty to meet air quality limits as soon as possible. 

In this context, Schools Streets are a no brainer - they help improve air quality and make it safer and easier for children to walk, scoot, and cycle to school.

What are School Streets?

School Streets restrict traffic on roads outside of school at pick-up and drop-off times during term time. They encourage walking and cycling, which brings lots of  benefits including reducing traffic, air pollution, and road dangers, whilst increasing physical activity - all of which provide significant health benefits for children!

School Streets are a small but achievable measure that parents can lobby for, and can be rolled out quickly; there are very few barriers for implementation.

Our School Streets report

Our report, written in collaboration with Mums for Lungs, assesses the current and future potential for School Streets in London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Bristol, and estimates the possible impact if School Streets were rolled out comprehensively within them. Here’s what we found:

• School Streets can effectively reduce air pollution and road danger outside school gates

• Primary schools are four times more likely than secondary schools to have School Streets

• There are approximately 430 schemes across the four cities, 400 of which are in London (with 50 more planned there already)

• In all four cities, about half of schools may be suitable for a School Street, and about two-thirds of schools if additional measures are also taken (like installing a bus gate, for example)

• Local Authorities outside of London haven’t been able to enforce their School Streets like London has - via automatic number plate recognition camera (ANPR) use

What you can do

Children deserve safe, healthy, and pleasant journeys to school. During school drop-off and pick-up times are when the most vulnerable road users are most concentrated in one area and so we must prioritise urgent interventions, like School Streets, to curb motor traffic to reduce road dangers and air pollution. 

• Use our easy tool to write to your councillor calling for School Streets to reduce children’s exposure to toxic air pollution in your area.

• Follow our very simple flowchart to see if your school is suitable for a School Street. If it is, get in touch with your school, PTA, headteacher, and local councillors!

• Use the toolkits and campaign guides within the report. 

• Get people talking about School Streets! Communication with all parts of our communities is key to its success.