Scotland school travel news
School Cycle Parking Fund 2012-13
Sustrans are delighted to announce the launch of our School Cycle Parking Fund 2012-13. We have secured funding to deliver cycle parking projects in schools throughout Scotland, with the aim of enabling and encouraging more pupils to travel actively to school.
Who can apply?
If cycle parking is required for your school please contact your local authority who can apply on your behalf.
Sustrans will only accept applications that have been coordinated and submitted by local authorities, not from individual schools. To find out who your local authority contact is please follow the link on our Scotland School Travel web page you’ll find this under the ‘Who to contact’ heading.
How to apply.
We have put together the following documents to help guide you through the application process.
- Cycle Parking Programme Application Information 2012-13 (pdf)
- Cycle Parking Guidelines 2012-13 (pdf)
- Cycle Parking Application Form 2012-13 (Excel)
Applications should be submitted to sarah.smalley@sustrans.org.uk no later than 5pm on Friday the 29th June. Please submit one application form per project.
For further information please contact Sarah Smalley on 0131 346 9780 or email sarah.smalley@sustrans.org.uk.
Cycling Scotland's Cycle Friendly and Sustainable Communities Fund
Cycling Scotland have launched their Cycle Friendly and Sustainable Communities Fund. The purpose of the fund is to contribute to a shift away from single occupancy car use, a reduction in carbon emissions and an improvement in wellbeing of communities across Scotland by enabling more people to have more opportunities to cycle. Their aim is to assist local groups to achieve these outcomes in their own communities through innovative new ways of utilising and increasing cycling.
It is Cycling Scotland’s vision that the fund will also support the targets and visions in the Climate Change Scotland Act and the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland.
The Cycle Friendly and Sustainable Communities Fund is open to individual community-led projects. However, partners from all sectors are welcome and encouraged to contribute to successful projects. These projects will involve the participation of the local community in the planning and running of local projects.
The amount they will consider funding will depend on the contribution of the project to Cycling Scotland’s vision. As a guide though, it is unlikely that they will be awarding projects a grant in excess of £6,000.
The closing date for applications is 5pm on the 25th June 2012.
For more information visit the Cycle friendly communities website
Walking, Cycling, Connecting Communities - 5th National Active Travel Conference
Thistle Hotel, Cambridge Street, Glasgow, G2 3HN - 29th May 2012.
Hear first hand from Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Housing & Transport; David Sim, Gehl architects; David Ubaka, previously of Transport for London. Topics include; How transport influences health, places for people, debate: are our towns and cities for people, inclusive environments and what makes better streets?
See website for the exciting programme for this conference.
Give Me Cycle Space campaign
Cycling Scotland is due to launch the Give Me Cycle Space campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to encourage more children to cycle to school. As the major barrier is parents' fear of busy roads, Cycling Scotland's campaign calls on drivers to be considerate towards child cyclists and give them plenty of space on the road. This message of 'give kids cycle space' is carried on a range of outdoor advertising, which centres around over 130 participating school across 12 local authorities, and is supported by a national radio campaign and a TV commercial, which you can view here.
The advert is designed to emphasise the need to give children space, so the child maintains outstretched arms throughout to carry through the 'give me space' message whilst various household objects give her space as she passes, and as the car passes the children at the end, there is a clear demonstration that drivers should pass cyclists leaving plenty of room.
The campaign will run in conjunction with children receiving Bikeability Scotland cycle training, the Riderz stunt team will visit schools to promote cycling to children as a cool and fun activity, a competition will run during the campaign to incentivise children to cycle to school, travel planning sessions to identify quiet routes will be run and all of the participating schools are being assessed for the Cycle Friendly School award. Parents of children in the target schools will also receive a letter highlighting the benefits of cycling, advice on travel planning with local mapping and information on Bikeability Scotland cycle training.
The Big Pedal 2012.
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The Big Pedal 2012 is over, the journeys all entered and the results are in. Here is an update on all the final results and figures:
Over the course of the 3 week competition we had a total of 890,304 journeys clocked on the Big Pedal counter! (The total for Big Pedal 2011 was 606,919 journeys).
The winning schools in each category are:
Small primary: Leswalt School (Stranraer)
Large primary: Oakhurst Community Primary School (Swindon)
Secondary: Aboyne Academy (Aberdeenshire)
A full list of overall, regional and daily stage winners can be found on the Big Pedal website. Prizes will go to all overall winners, runners up, regional winners and daily stage winners.
Free Range Kids activity sheets
There are now 119 Free Range Kids activity sheets on the Free Range Kids website for families and schools. These popular resources provide ideas, practical tips and guidance on a wide range of topics and themes in an easy to use format. They all encourage walking, cycling, outdoor play or resident-led street improvements:
Natural Childhood report
Evidence of a long-term and dramatic decline in children’s relationship with the outdoors is ‘overwhelming’ and urgent action is needed to bridge this growing gap before it's too late, according to a National Trust’s report (pdf) published recently.
Stephen Moss highlights how a generation of children is finally losing touch with the natural world. “But despite the overwhelming evidence and the different initiatives and schemes run by organisations across the UK, our kids are spending less and less time in the outdoors.” The report cites statistics showing that the area where children are allowed to range unsupervised around their homes has shrunk by 90% since the 1970s. The report goes on to state: “In 1971, 80% of seven- and eight-year-olds walked to school, often alone or with their friends, whereas two decades later fewer than 10% did so – almost all accompanied by their parents.”
"I think the first step for any child is playing outdoors in the street; and in the 40 years since I grew up, traffic has increased hugely, and that's the main reason why none of us let our kids out on their own," says Stephen Moss.
Sustrans School Travel best-practice sharing day
Sustrans are organising a best practice-sharing day on June 13th in Glasgow for the whole School Travel network. There are many examples of best practice in the School Travel network and by sharing it we could all pick up a new idea or way of working that could increase the numbers of children walking or cycling to school in Scotland.
Programme includes school travel professionals from different local authorities, Sustrans partners; Ecoschools, Cycling Scotland and Living Streets. For more information contact cecilia.oram@sustrans.org.uk
Good Places Better Health
The Good Places Better Health for Scotland's Children report from the Scottish Government’s Health Directorate has a series of recommendations that link closely with Sustrans Free Range Kids campaign. The report focuses on four health challenges facing Scottish children; obesity, unintentional injury (including road accidents), asthma and mental health and wellbeing. 20mph as a default speed limit in all urban areas is one of the key recommendations.
Sustrans and Cycling Scotland at SLF 2012
Both Sustrans and Cycling Scotland will be sharing a stand at the Scottish Learning Festival 2012. This year's event at the SECC in Glasgow will be on Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th of September 2012. Come and visit us in the Health and Wellbeing Zone and hear about our latest developments and resources.
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