School travel plans

School travel plans should aim to:

• make children safer on their route to and from school by improving the routes they use when on foot and bicycles and their skills and attitudes;
• reduce the number of cars being used on the school run, to reduce pollution and congestion as well as danger to children.

As well as helping you to improve students’ safety and reduce the chances of death or injury in your community, it also helps address other important issues for your school, such as the health and wellbeing of students, impact on the environment, and congestion and parking problems.

It's a good idea to involve local road safety professionals, as well as your school community, in designing your school travel plan. They can help you to identify safe routes and safety issues.

You may also want to use the findings from designing your plan to help you campaign for road safety improvements around your school. You can use our community campaign kit to help you.

Whether you already have a school travel plan or are setting one up or developing an existing one, use the links below to learn more about them. You should also contact your local council, as they often have guidance on setting up a school travel plan:

• Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency's Safe school travel plan guide
• Feet First resources provide learning experiences around walking
• Brake's wider road safety guidance for educators