Traffic bedlam about to resume

By REBECCA WALSH and RENEE KIRIONA

It's back to school this week - and back to traffic jams.

Around the country an estimated 620,000 children and young people will be returning to school and many of them will be dropped off in cars.

In Auckland alone more than 40 per cent of peak-time travel is related to education.

But on the North Shore, schools are working with the city council to reduce traffic and ensure children get to school safely.

North Shore City's works and environment committee chairman, Joel Cayford, said that after a successful pilot programme with a handful of schools last year, the council had received Government support to help more schools develop a travel management plan.

This involved a school's pupils and parents drawing the route they would walk or cycle to school on a map and identifying any risks along the way. These might be a dangerous intersection, reduced visibility for crossing the road or potholes that made cycling difficult.

The council could then make changes to improve safety which might include new pedestrian crossings, safe cycle paths and restricted parking.

Dr Cayford said some schools had set up kea crossings at points where pupils entered and left the school. Cars were not allowed to park within 20m of a kea crossing and a teacher or parent ensured children crossed the road safely.

Walking school "buses" were often part of travel plans and the council was investigating the option of bike chains, which would operate in the same way with parents biking to and from school with children.

The council had discovered one of the reasons children didn't cycle was that schools had removed bike racks.

He estimated the number of parents dropping their children off at Stanley Bay School had halved as a result of the school's travel plan.

Six co-ordinators had been recruited to work with schools to develop travel plans and it was hoped another 20 would be operational by the end of the year. The council had also developed a manual on how to set up a travel plan and appointed a full-time co-ordinator.

About 60 schools in the Auckland region already use walking buses.

Robin Kearns, who helped to set up the city's first walking school bus, at Gladstone Primary in Mt Albert, said more needed to be done to encourage parents of children at low-decile schools to follow suit.

"We know lower-decile schools are slower in setting up walking school buses, but we are still establishing the underlying reasons for this," said Professor Kearns, from the Auckland University School of Geography and Environmental Science.

"We believe that parents may have less time to volunteer to operate as supervisors so this may be a factor."

Acting Sergeant Tipi Poi, of the Auckland strategic traffic unit, asked motorists to be extra patient and cautious this week.