Safe Streets to School: Healthy Urban Planning Approaches 

In 1985, 75% of NSW school children walked or rode to school but by 2024, that figure had dropped to less than a quarter. Physical activity promotes learning and is essential to keep kids happy and healthy, but safety concerns and larger school catchments have contributed to declining rates of walking and cycling to school. This raises the question: 

How can we design our cities to facilitate safe and active travel to school for children? 

A recent meeting of the Healthy Urban Environments Community of Practice held at University of Wollongong set out to answer this question. The Community of Practice is a group of built environment professionals who live and work in the Illawarra Shoalhaven. It is supported by Healthy Cities Australia. 

The meeting heard from Wollongong City Council Traffic Engineer Nicolas Ozolins, who explained Council’s Safer Routes to School program to improve walking and cycling infrastructure around each of the 84 schools located in the Local Government Area. Nicolas explained how his team performs an audit for each school, in consultation with the school community. These audits are then used to prepare school plans that identify signs, lines, and infrastructure to make walking and riding safer. Once identified, they are added to Council’s prioritisation tools for consideration in the Infrastructure Delivery Program. Having these plans ready-made makes it easier for council to seek grant funding for improvements. 

Transport planner Graham McCabe drew on his experience working for councils and consultancies to increase active travel. He shared his experiences at the City of Sydney, where he led pedestrian and cycling initiatives that helped lift cycling rates significantly. Graham explained how Green Travel Plans can be utilised to provide a consistent approach to understanding travel behaviours and whether they can be more sustainable by prioritising walking, cycling, and public transport use. They look at the barriers to travelling by sustainable modes using the COM-B Approach. This involves considering the Capacity (can it be done), Opportunity (is it feasible) and Motivation (do I want to do it) for active travel. All three of these factors are necessary to lead to Behaviour change. A healthier and safer school transport system can be provided by addressing barriers, improving the desirability of walking, cycling, and using public transport, and disincentivising car use. 

Finally urban designer David Petrie explored the Healthy Streets framework. He explained that designers need to consider how people interact with and move through space, and how design influences behaviour and decision-making. Designing places for people includes thinking about how to create physical barriers to separate people from potential harm (like busy roads), prioritising pedestrian connections, providing solar access and different forms of seating, shade, soundscapes, visibility, and places to rest. When all of these factors are taken into account, they can encourage increased use, such as walking and riding to school. David showed us examples of his past work for local governments in Sydney, where he led teams that solved problems by creating multifunctional infrastructure that delivers on multiple functions. 

The Healthy Urban Environments Community of Practice provides independent, evidence-based advice on evidence-based advice on how to achieve better health outcomes for our kids. Our factsheet Safe Streets to School: Healthy Urban Planning Approaches is available on the Healthy Cities Australia website. It contains information and resources that can assist urban designers and transport planners with ideas for getting kids walking and cycling to school once more.