School streets: Reducing children's exposure to toxic air pollution and road danger
Air pollution in urban areas has a devastating impact on children’s health. However, one initiative to tackle air pollution is School Streets.
This solution sees traffic restricted on roads outside schools at pick-up and drop-off times during term-times, making it safer and easier for children to walk, scoot and cycle to school.
This 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.