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6. Canadian School Travel Plans - Phase One (Research and Development)

Canadian School Travel Plans - Phase One (Research and Development)

Green Communities Canada (GCC) is an association of over 40 non-profit organizations from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island to Yellowknife delivering innovative, practical environmental solutions to Canadian households and communities. GCC combines the strengths of local program delivery with the advantages of comprehensive support at the national level

What are they doing?

Dependency on car travel can be correlated to decreased daily physical activity, declining air quality, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Parents today are increasingly concerned about the safety of their children, often opting for a drive of a few blocks rather than risking calamity by allowing children to walk or cycle to school. Although these important issues are receiving much attention in the media and in local communities, a comprehensive, national approach to dealing with the journey to school, and other local destination trips, is lacking in Canada. The objective of this project is to create a cohesive national framework to not only encourage safer and sustainable travel to school but to also work with local decision-makers to create the much needed infrastructure and enforcement required to allow safer and more accessible travel for children in their communities

A school travel plan is a framework that documents actions formulated by children, parents and staff, aimed at increasing environmentally friendly travel. School Travel Planning aims to identify and remove practical and attitudinal issues attached to walking, cycling, and other environmentally friendly modes of travel to and from school. School Travel Plans deliver a range of benefits including:

• Increased walking and cycling by children, improving health and road-awareness;
• Environmental improvements including reduced emissions and more favourable conditions for sustainable travel modes;
• Economic benefits for the community and individuals from less time spent in cars.

School Travel Plans become an official part of each school and municipality's operating plan and policy documents - a plan that is revisited and revised periodically. School Travel Plans create a cohesive, locally managed, long-term process to improve children's health, safety and happiness in a structured, comprehensive strategy that uses community expertise and strengths.

Research, development, and piloting of a School Travel Planning process is the first phase of creating a School Travel Plan strategy for Canada. It is also the next logical step in furthering the sustainability of the Safe Routes to School movement, well established in Ontario and British Columbia, and now spreading across Canada. GCC will research existing School Travel Plan programs, both internationally and within Canada, and then determine best practices for a national program with strong community buy-in from across the country. Through this process, an organizational model suited to our country, its political framework and institutional networks will be created. Existing delivery materials will be adapted. Consultation with national and municipal experts will occur.

Where can you find more information?

Green Communities Canada Website

Date modified:

2010-07-22

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