Active Streets for Schools
Walking or cycling to school seems like a good idea. Active Streets is an ACT Government initiative to encourage children to walk to school. Most of never heard of it. Currently, the program is still poorly funded.
More information found at Active Streets for Schools, ACT Government.
“The Active Streets for Schools program is an extension of the Ride or Walk to School program to make the environment around schools safer to ride, walk, scooter or skate to and from school.
Riding, walking, scooting or skating are simple ways to incorporate physical activity into everyday lives and daily journeys. Physically active children are healthier, happier and more socially connected than children who have more sedentary lifestyles.
Active Streets makes it easier and safer for children to ride or walk to school. Not only will this get kids active, it will give parents peace of mind that the route to school is safe and easy to follow. It is also a fun way to get to and from school and helps alleviate some of the traffic congestion created by parents dropping kids off at the school gate.”
Active Streets for Schools, ACT Government, accessed 6/8/2020
The Active Streets program has been expanded to include an additional 52 primary schools during 2018-22. The schools were selected following an Expression of Interest (EOI) process, which invited all primary schools that hadn’t previously received Active Streets support to indicate their interest in the program.
Active Streets for Schools, ACT Government, accessed 15/12/2021
Figure : Active Street along Wimmera Street at Harrison School, Gungahlin.
Figure : Drop off point within a short walking distance from Harrison School in the sport oval complex.
Harrison’s lost window of opportunity
Don’t you think it would be desirable to see more children riding to school? Children riding to school are more likely to ride as adults. First we make our habits, then our habits make us! Industry sales of children’s bikes has declined by 22% in the last ten years. Just take the time to reflect on that! What can be done?
Children’s brains are not fully developed and they are therefore not very good at judging traffic – and parents know it. It seems obvious that we need the most modern, next practice infrastructure around schools that is internationally available to us. Anybody that has seen schools at the beginning and end of the day will know how busy they can get. And anyone who has studied psychology will know that parents are focused on their own children – not on those of other parents. And most certainly not those, who are ‘reckless and uncaring’ enough to let them ride to school! Ideal around schools would be narrow roads to slow down traffic, and wide footpaths with separated footpath and bike paths. When the ACT is laying out the suburb, this should be the better practice standard.
It is all the more interesting then that this has not been done in the relative new suburb of Harrison around Mother Teresa Primary School on Mapleton Ave. The road is pretty narrow, the footpath is pretty wide, but there is no bike path to be seen.
Once the suburb has been built, how do you find space to retrofit bike paths? How can it be done cost effectively? To make it worse, locals have already accepted and adapted to the existing design. It’s now the status quo. Change is hard, because it’s hard, because it’s hard!!
There are plenty of blue signs painted on the concrete footpath around Mother Teresa Primary School warning of children using the paths. It is not as though you would not see them. What they are really doing is demonstrating the tension of bikes and pedestrians sharing one narrow concrete path. Paint has never successfully driven positive behaviour.
This is the lack of systems thinking and fully integrated change leadership and change management that is typical of our “olden but golden” planning in Canberra.