Building a future where children travel sustainably.
The School Mobility project helps develop an intervention strategy based on understanding the needs of students (and their guardians) at each school in the municipality, promoting a modal shift to active modes and public transport.
We live in cities and towns where children are rarely seen walking alone to school; the increasing dependence of families on private cars has extended to all generations, creating a vicious cycle where parents believe the streets are dangerous for their children, and their own reckless driving and parking behaviours contribute to increased insecurity.
Changing school mobility is essential if we want healthier, happier children, but also because cities cannot continue to bear the pressure that car dependency is placing on them. We believe it is possible to create a future where parents can once again allow their children to go to school independently, whether by public transport, bicycle, scooter, or on foot. The day this becomes common will signal that we are on the right track.
There are countless benefits associated with promoting sustainable and independent school mobility.
How did this project idea come about?
In recent years, we have noticed that the mobility of children and young people has become increasingly dependent on their parents (or other guardians) and cars. This reality began with preschool children but has since extended to older age groups.
Currently, a generation of future adults is growing up without knowing any mode of transport other than the car, which severely limits their modal choices and contributes to health and well-being problems associated with their sedentary lifestyles.
For our cities and towns, this strong dependence on cars creates significant management challenges, especially in a context where promoting greater sustainability in transport and its decarbonisation is imperative. It is no coincidence that we can all recognise differences in road traffic when we are (or are not) in school periods.
The School Mobility platform aims to support municipalities in identifying the needs expressed by students at each school and, at the same time, help municipalities choose the solutions that best fit each circumstance, contributing to enabling students to travel in increasingly sustainable ways.
