 | This article possibly contains original research .(September 2007) |
The school run is the modern practice of parents taking their children to school by car. Many parents park their cars in school car parks and driveways to drop off and pick up their children at the appropriate times.
In the past it was normal for children to walk to school, either on their own, with friends, or accompanied by an adult. [1] Walking to school by primary school pupils fell from 61% in 1992/4 to 50% in 2004. [2] In recent years walking to school has become less common as more and more students are dropped off at school by parents using cars, sometimes in a rota with other parents.
Reasons for this trend include:
The risk of children being run over near their schools is much higher than in the past[ citation needed ] due to parents driving their own children to school and parking in unsafe places near the school gates. It is not unusual to see drivers parking their cars in bus stops, on pedestrian crossings or facing the wrong way, with children getting in or out of the car.
Some streets near schools now have a 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limit operating when the children are about, though traffic congestion often necessitates a lower speed.
With the increase in a choice of schools, children may have to travel further and are more likely to require a bus or car ride.
It is claimed that the school run is responsible for a large amount of the traffic problems in the morning rush hour.
The decreasing amount of exercise and associated increase in obesity are also partly blamed on the school run. To combat this, many schools have started arrangements to encourage children to walk to school, whilst mitigating the possible dangers. An example is the "walking school bus", an organised group of children and volunteer parents walking to school. [3]
The school run has become a popular target for some politicians and campaigners against the use of cars for journeys which could be better walked or cycled. [1] One of the campaigns promoting this alternative is the walk to school campaign.
Some schools are now designed with winding drop-off lanes to accommodate long queues of private vehicles, [1] making it more difficult to access the school by bike or foot. [1]
Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers in the neighbourhoods. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming, including narrowed roads and speed humps. Such measures are common in Australia and Europe, but less so in North America. Traffic calming is a calque of the German word Verkehrsberuhigung – the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.
Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In developing countries, the effects of the car on society are not as visible, however they are nonetheless significant. The development of the car built upon the transport sector first started by railways. This has introduced sweeping changes in employment patterns, social interactions, infrastructure and the distribution of goods.
Utility cycling encompasses any cycling done simply as a means of transport rather than as a sport or leisure activity. It is the original and most common type of cycling in the world. Cycling mobility is one of the various types of private transport and a major part of individual mobility.
The 2004 election to the post of Mayor of London took place on 10 June 2004. It was being held on the same day as other local elections and the UK part of the 2004 European Parliament elections, so Londoners had a total of five votes on three ballot papers. Polling opened at 07:00 local time, and closed at 22:00. See: 2004 UK elections. The Supplementary Vote system was used.
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system, or carpool for the remainder of the journey. The vehicle is left in the parking lot during the day and retrieved when the owner returns. Park and rides are generally located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities. A park and ride that only offers parking for meeting a carpool and not connections to public transport may also be called a park and pool.
The car-free movement is a broad, informal, emergent network of individuals and organizations, including social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers, environmentalists and others, brought together by a shared belief that large and/or high-speed motorized vehicles are too dominant in most modern cities. The goal of the movement is to create places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated, by converting road and parking space to other public uses and rebuilding compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by other means, including walking, cycling, public transport, personal transporters, and mobility as a service.
Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainable in terms of their social and environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; the source of energy; and the infrastructure used to accommodate the transport. Transport operations and logistics as well as transit-oriented development are also involved in evaluation. Transportation sustainability is largely being measured by transportation system effectiveness and efficiency as well as the environmental and climate impacts of the system. Transport systems have significant impacts on the environment, accounting for between 20% and 25% of world energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The majority of the emissions, almost 97%, came from direct burning of fossil fuels. In 2019, about 95% of the fuel came from fossil sources. The main source of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union is transportation. In 2019 it contributes to about 31% of global emissions and 24% of emissions in the EU. In addition, up to the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions have only increased in this one sector. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport are increasing at a faster rate than any other energy using sector. Road transport is also a major contributor to local air pollution and smog.
A living street is a street designed with the interests of pedestrians and cyclists in mind by providing enriching and experiential spaces. Living streets also act as social spaces, allowing children to play and encouraging social interactions on a human scale, safely and legally. Living streets consider all pedestrians granting equal access to elders and those who are disabled. These roads are still available for use by motor vehicles; however, their design aims to reduce both the speed and dominance of motorized transport. The reduction of motor vehicle dominance creates more opportunities for public transportation. Living Streets achieve these strategies by implementing the shared space approach. Reducing demarcations between vehicle traffic and pedestrians create a cohesive space without segregating different modes of transportation. Vehicle parking may also be restricted to designated bays. These street design principles first became popularized in the Netherlands during the 1970s, and the Dutch word woonerf is often used as a synonym for living street.
Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths of various transportation options. A major goal of modern intermodal passenger transport is to reduce dependence on the automobile as the major mode of ground transportation and increase use of public transport. To assist the traveller, various intermodal journey planners such as Rome2rio and Google Transit have been devised to help travellers plan and schedule their journey.
A walking bus is a form of student transport for young schoolchildren who, chaperoned typically by two adults, walk. The crocodile may walk to school along a set route, with some similarities to a school bus route, with designated "bus stops" and "pick up times" at which they pick up and "drop off" children. In Britain a group of schoolchildren walking together in a long line of pairs on an activity without stops or pickups, escorted by teachers, has been referred to as a crocodile since at least 1870.
Cycling is the second-most common mode of transport in the Netherlands, with 36% of Dutch people listing the bicycle as their most frequent way of getting around on a typical day, as opposed to the car (45%) and public transport (11%). Cycling has a modal share of 27% of all trips nationwide. In cities this is even higher, such as Amsterdam which has 38%, and Zwolle 46%. This high frequency of bicycle travel is enabled by excellent cycling infrastructure such as cycle paths, cycle tracks, protected intersections, ample bicycle parking and by making cycling routes shorter and more direct than car routes.
Road signs in Norway are regulated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Statens vegvesen.
A travel plan is a package of actions designed by a workplace, school or other organisation to encourage safe, healthy and sustainable travel options. By reducing car travel, travel plans can improve health and wellbeing, free up car parking space, and make a positive contribution to the community and the environment. Every travel plan is different, but most successful plans have followed a structured process in their development:
Established alternatives to car use include cycling, walking, kick scooters, rollerblading, skateboarding, twikes and motorcycles. Other alternatives are public transport vehicles.
In urban planning, walkability is the accessibility of amenities by foot. It is based on the idea that urban spaces should be more than just transport corridors designed for maximum vehicle throughput. Instead, it should be relatively complete livable spaces that serve a variety of uses, users, and transportation modes and reduce the need for cars for travel.
Public transport is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typically managed on a schedule, operated on established routes, and that may charge a posted fee for each trip. There is no rigid definition of which kinds of transport are included, and air travel is often not thought of when discussing public transport—dictionaries use wording like "buses, trains, etc." Examples of public transport include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail. High-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world.
Student transport is the transporting of children and teenagers to and from schools and school events. School transport can be undertaken by school students themselves, they may be accompanied by family members or caregivers, or the transport may be organised collectively, using School buses or taxis.
Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except where cyclists are barred such as many freeways/motorways. It includes amenities such as bike racks for parking, shelters, service centers and specialized traffic signs and signals. The more cycling infrastructure, the more people get about by bicycle.
As a part of student transport, buses play a key role in transporting students to and from school, coinciding with their high seating capacity and a higher degree of safety compared to other modes of transportation. The usage of buses in student transport varies worldwide, ranging from the usage of public transportation by students, transit buses set aside to transport students, or purpose-built school buses owned and operated by school systems.
School Streets is an scheme in the United Kingdom, Germany, Czechia Austria and other countries, to suspend motor traffic access to roads outside schools, during drop-off and pick-up times.