26 September 2023

Transport report drives ride-to-school push

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The Department of Transport has released a new report highlighting the decline in numbers of children walking and riding to school.

In a statement, the Department said The Declining Rate of Walking and Cycling to School in Perth included a call to action to encourage more kids to engage in active transport.

It said the Report stated that the national rate of active travel to school had dropped from 75 per cent to 25 per cent over the past 40 years, while in Perth the rate of students riding or walking to school was at 20 per cent.

“The annual economic cost of car travel to school in the Perth metropolitan area is estimated at over $186 million, with more than 18 per cent of morning peak car trips, and around 250,000 weekday car trips and 1.06 million vehicle kilometres associated with trips to and from school,” it said.

Minister for Transport, Rita Saffioti said she had asked the Department to produce the Report and, as a result, work was already under way to reverse the trend and encourage more students to walk, ride or scoot to school.

“This year the Your Move program has engaged more than 170 schools in more than 750 activities to encourage walking and riding to school, with 48 schools snapping up $125,000 of Connecting Schools grants within 24 hours,” Ms Saffioti said.

“In direct response to the popularity of the grants, we will increase funding to $200,000 from next year to encourage more schools to get involved,” she said.

Ms Saffioti said the Report contained some concerning figures with the steep drop in children choosing to walk and ride to school “but it’s also helping highlight the issue and provide us with the opportunity to find a solution”.

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