Going to plan? School travel plans in London

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Almost a third of children in the capital travel to school by car. Our report reveals Transport for London is unable to show what effect a £34.4million scheme to change school travel habits has had. The investigation on behalf of the Assembly Transport Committee found TfL’s claims about the effects of school travel plans may have been “overstated and potentially misleading”. TfL claim the travel plans have resulted in an average reduction of 5.5 per cent, yet this was based on only a very small sample and did not take into account other factors which would influence travel choices.

There has been poor take up of the voluntary initiative among London primary schools, despite TfL allocating significant resources. Just over one in three primary schools – 1,084 schools - have an approved travel plan, aimed at changing school travel patterns to cut congestion and pollution and allowing many more pupils to take regular exercise. A survey conducted by the Committee found a range of reasons why some schools have made little progress in developing their travel plan: some cited ‘initiative overload’; others referred to the level of bureaucracy involved in developing plans; some schools are simply resistant to the idea and are unwilling to divert resources to the initiative.

The report highlights a need for TfL to improve the timeliness and quality of its data collection. The Committee recommended that TfL publishes progress towards the target that each school should have an approved travel plan by the end of 2009.