TravelWise
Have a look at our school TravelWise brochure here 

TravelWise is an ongoing project with a set of practical actions that aim to improve road safety and promote sustainable school travel journeys. It is a partnership between Auckland Regional Transport Authority, North Shore City Council, and the school. Our school is committed to safe, active and sustainable travel to and from school. The benefits include: ·         Reduced traffic congestion at the school gates, this improves safety for all children. ·         Reduction of polluting car emissions in the environment. ·         Helping children learn road safety skills and become familiar with their community. ·        Improved engineering infrastructure to promote walking / cylcing withing the school zone  ·        Encouraging walking/cycling to improve children’s fitness and health ·         Promoting the Walking School Bus

Willow Park Primary School Travel Plan

 

Why have a School Travel Plan?

 

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of New Zealand children being driven to and from school. 

Trips to school make up around one third of all morning peak trips.  As well as causing congestion on the roads around schools, the increased number of car trips bring a risk to child pedestrians and cyclists and also bring parking issues. 

 

TravelWise School Travel Plans are a set of practical actions which aim to improve road safety and reduce car trips to school, making school journeys active, social, safe and sustainable. The additional benefits include increased health, fitness, independence and road sense for our children.

 

 

Willow Park Primary has been working in partnership with North Shore City Council and Auckland Regional transport Authority since  late 2007, and we officially launched  our School Travel Plan in March 2009. 

 

 

Willow Park School Travel Plan aims to:

 

·  Reduce the number of students travelling to and from school by car

·  Increase the number of students walking and cycling to and from school

·  Raise awareness of road safety issues with students and parents

·  Make it easier and safer for the students to walk and cycle to and from Willow Park School.

 

Engineering a safer environment around the School

Roading engineers from North Shore City Council have been involved with our Travel Plan, and proposed some excellent strategies to improve the safety of the route to Willow Park School:

 

·  Installation of a School Speed Zone around the School.  This was put in place in January 2009 and is already having a positive influence on car speeds on Eban Avenue in particular.

·  New Kea crossing on Compton Street – a welcome formal crossing area making it much safer for children arriving at, and going home from, school.

·  New Kea crossing in Sylvia Road, near the junction with Eban Avenue – this new crossing is set further back from the junction, and is more visible to drivers and safer for pedestrians.

·  Changes to the configuration of,  and widening of, the pavement at the Sylvia Road / Eban Ave junction, between the two crossings

·  Investigate a safer crossing on Moore Street, south of Compton Street intersection.

 

 

Encouraging more children to walk or cycle to School

The Willow Park Travel Plan has a number of strategies to encourage more children to walk or cycle, including:

·  Encourage greater use of our five existing morning Walking School Buses

·  Investigate possibilities for new Walking School Bus routes and afternoon Walking School Buses

Take part in school-wide programmes to promote regular walking habits – for example “Feet First Walk to School”,(  www.feetfirst.govt.nz ),   “International Walk to School Month”

·  The launch of the Ten Trip TravelWise Travel Ticket

·  Run the “Be Safe, Be Seen” visibility project for students cycling to School

·  We have already increased the number of cycle racks at the School for the Year 5 and 6 children who are allowed to cycle

 

 

Park and Walk

 

Did you know that you can park in the Northcote Baptist Church and then your child can walk safely to the patrolled school crossing on Eban Ave and into School?

There is plenty of parking there and we are very grateful to the Church for allowing us to make use of this.  Much less hassle than negotiating Compton Street at 3pm!

 

Be Safe, Be Seen

Willow Park School is now running this project in conjunction with North Shore City Council.  Any Year 5 or 6 children who wish to cycle to and from School must sign an agreement that they will wear a Hi Viz flouro vest and bike helmet whenever they ride their bikes.  The vests are then supplied free to the children by the North Shore City Council.  The vests are big enough to go over back packs and certainly make these children easily visible as they cycle to School!

Cycle agreement forms are available at the School Office.

 

Below is a link to an information brochure about teaching your child to be road smart...  http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadsmart/

Are you contemplating whether your child is ready to walk to school independently? Take a look at this comprehensive web page.