Case Study: Ireland

Green-Schools Travel, Ireland

Summary

An Taisce - The National Trust for Ireland administers the Green-School's programme in Ireland on behalf of FEE. Green-Schools is currently running a Travel Pilot Programme funded by the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) in partnership with six Local Authorities. Green-Schools is working with a total of twenty nine schools in the Greater Dublin Area (Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow) from September 2005 to August 2007 to promote sustainable modes of transport on the journey to school. This represents approximately 10,400 children and 545 teachers.

Green-Schools focuses on empowering students, teachers and parents to take action and play a part in decision making through the structure of a Green-Schools Committee. In this way schools will decide the most appropriate way to reduce their car dependency over the two year period. To date schools have chosen to run a number of initiatives and competitions which have worked successfully internationally. The most popular idea is Walk On Wednesday (WOW) which is a UK campaign aimed at promoting walking to school once a week. Schools have also successfully organised a number of walking buses, Golden Boot Awards1, Green Tree schemes2, travel surveys and mapping exercises to promote car pooling. Seven schools have also successfully applied for funding for cycle parking due to an increased need for parking as a result of the pilot programme.

It is hoped that the project will be launched nationally in August 2007 once the twenty nine schools have shown a level of success which is sustainable.

Results

Results have not been collated to date. It is hoped Green-Schools Travel will achieve fundamental behavioural change which is turn will result in a modal shift away from the private car. The structure of Green-Schools is one in which individuals are actively involved in decision making therefore any actions which take place will be as a result of engagement with the school population.

The benefits of the project may potentially be:

• a safer school environment
• an accessible and inclusive school
• less congestion in front of the school
• less traffic in the local community
• less pollution
• fitter and healthier pupils
• independent pupils
• less use of non-renewable resources
• support for local bus networks
• support for cycle routes and pedestrian routes
• a safer, quieter, more pedestrian friendly local environment

Some results to date include:

• Co-ordinators from all 29 schools have attended workshops on sustainable travel which were delivered by An Taisce.
• An Taisce has delivered sustainable travel workshops to students in all 29 schools.
• 19 schools in total have begun WOW days and continue to promote WOW on a regular basis.
• 11 schools have promoted Park n Stride and have teamed up with local supermarkets/churches to provide short term parking for parents.
• 6 schools have held road safety awareness talks and 3 have held road safety awareness weeks.
• 10 schools have taken part in International Walk to School Month held in October.
• 9 schools promote walking using the Green Tree initiative which monitors walking levels in the school over time.
• 8 schools have Golden Boot/Bike Awards to promote regular walking and cycling.
• 10 schools have availed of cycle training for students.
• 8 schools have secured funding for cycle parking.
• 1 school has organized and continues to run 2 walking buses. In total 30 children participate and currently there is a waiting list for places.
• All schools carried out a qualitative survey with older classes. Respondents felt that raising awareness of the issues (environment, health, money, exercise etc) was the most effective way to encourage them to leave the car at home when travelling to school.
• Teachers are reporting to GS Education Officers that children are more alert arriving to school and that they are enjoying walking & cycling.
• When schools run initiatives such as WOW days, local residents have reported back that congestion in the locality has been positively affected. Initiatives have also enabled schools to gain some valuable publicity from local press and radio.