Walking School Bus

In an effort to reduce congestion around schools, and our carbon footprint, a group of parents in our neighbourhood in Taroona Tasmania, Australia, met to start a ‘walking bus’. It is a supervised walk along a set route, which children can join to walk to school.

We first met with local authorities to identify the best route and then walked the path to identify potential dangers such as traffic crossings. We invited expressions of interest from parents and students through the school newsletter and developed a roster of two parents who walked along the set route of about one kilometre, collecting up to ten students on the way. We began with three mornings a week. The walking school bus had a ‘driver’ who led the group and a ‘conductor’ who walked at the back of the line. We all wore safety vests and the parents carried a small first aid kit with bandaids and a cell phone. Students registered with the school and signed a code of conduct. This included being on time, not running, walking with a partner between the driver and the conductor.

We had about ten passengers per day and the walk took about forty minutes. It was good exercise for the students and helped develop friendships and a great sense of community. We were regularly greeted by local residents on our route. On Christmas, one of the neighbours on our walking bus route invited all the students to the door and gave them all gifts! The students on the bus range in age from 5 to 10 years.

By using the walking school bus we avoided ten return car trips, of two kilometres, three times a week! This worked out to be 2400 kilometres car travel over the year. We were surprised to see how the kilometres added up! From our calculations, for a small car, this reduced our carbon emissions by around 700 kilograms per year!

– by Nel Smit,
Environment educator from Australia,
nelsmit@iprimus.com.au

Gobar Times invites readers to share and seek information about Green Schools at
eeu@cseindia.org or write to

Environment Education Unit
Centre for Science and Environment
41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110062
or e-mail: eeu@cseindia.org

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