Case Study A – School Streets

Context

A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on both school and non-school related motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. School Street restrictions are implemented under a Local Authority Traffic Management Order and typically enforced using access signs, temporary bollards, and in some cases automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

Originating in Italy in the 1980s, the first UK School Streets scheme was trialled in Edinburgh in 2015. Following a relatively slow start the number of School Streets schemes in the UK increased significantly during the pandemic period 2020-2021 and continues to grow steadily. As of January 2024, there were 468 School Streets schemes registered with the Streets School Streets Initiative.

Many School Streets initiatives are still in their trial phase but there is a growing evidence base suggesting that these relatively light touch, low-cost approaches can lead to significant and sustained changes to travel behaviours and habits (Davis, 2020; Belcourt-Weir et al., 2022; Thomas, 2022). They have been shown, for example, to be effective at significantly reducing motor traffic around schools and neighbouring streets (Davis, 2020), both during and after closure times (Thomas, 2022) and at increasing active travel among children (Davis, 2020).

Key Elements of Change

The original, pre-pandemic, impetus for School Streets emerged out of a number of different, but related, concerns associated with road safety, traffic congestion, local air quality, and active travel considerations. These different drivers, or framings, found a common denominator, a galvanising focus, around protecting children’s health and safety.

The emergence of children’s health as a galvanising issue was crucial in terms of it being both an idea around which many agendas could coalesce and a notion and outcome that few would argue with. The broad consensual appeal of children’s health also served to mitigate and minimise community contestations and conflicts. While School Streets do face some local opposition, they are proving significantly less divisive than other, similar, but differently framed, traffic schemes.

The involvement and consent of local residents and community groups is critical, but the success of School Streets schemes is also dependent on a broad coalition of mid-level actors whose collective efforts contribute to their development and implementation. Schools (staff and boards) and parents (PTA and other groups), for example, play a crucial role in advocating for and supporting the development of local School Streets schemes.

Local authorities, who are largely responsible for planning, designing, and implementing the physical changes to the streets surrounding schools, play an important role too, as do a range of other supporting mid-level actors including: transportation and road safety experts; health professionals; police and traffic enforcement authorities; and non-government organisations such as Sustrans.

Lessons for Net Zero

School Streets are being shown to be successful at reducing overall levels of traffic around schools and neighbouring streets both during and after closure times. They are also proving effective at increasing active travel among children which, evidence suggests (DeWeese et al., 2022), has long-term positive, habit-forming effects. Both these changes will lead to reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The success of School Streets schemes also has two other potentially important lessons for similar traffic reduction initiatives.

• Firstly, Davis’ (2020) research shows that people’s (negative) attitudes towards the schemes change once evidence emerges, anecdotally and empirically, that many of their negative assumptions (particularly in relation to the spatial displacement of traffic) do not materialise.
• Secondly, it is notable that in the development of, and discussions around School Streets, net zero was very rarely mentioned. In the context of other initiatives, this demonstrates the value of emphasising various other (non-net zero) co-benefits, and the crucial role of a galvanising, not polarising, focal issue around which to build schemes.

School Streets: Elements of Societal Change

Multi-factor DRIVERS OF CHANGE

• Road safety concerns
• School run traffic congestion
• Local air quality concerns
• Active travel considerations

Nb: climate change/carbon emissions very rarely explicitly mentioned

Mid-level ACTORS 

• Local authorities
• Parent groups
• Teachers and school staff
• Community groups
• Sustrans

Galvanising ISSUE 

• Health and safety of local school children

JUSTICE Considerations

• Potential inequality in geographical distribution of schemes

CONTESTATIONS and CONFLICTS

• Commuters/motorists vs. children/parents
• Right to drive vs. right to clean air/safe streets

REFERENCES

• Belcourt-Weir et al. (2022). School Streets and Traffic Displacement: Technical Report –Sustrans
• Davis, A. (2020). School Street Closures and Traffic Displacement: A Literature Review and Semi-Structured Interviews. Transport Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University:Edinburgh, UK
• DeWeese, R. S., Acciai, F., Tulloch, D., Lloyd, K., Yedidia, M. J. & Ohri-Vachaspati, P. (2022). Active commuting to school: A longitudinal analysis examining persistence of behavior overtime in four New Jersey cities. Preventive Medicine Reports, 26, 101718
• Hopkinson, L., Goodman, A., Sloman, L., Aldred, R. & Thomas, A. (2021). School Streets Reducing children’s exposure to toxic air pollution and road danger
• Thomas, A. (2022). Making School Streets Healthier: Learning from temporary and emergency closures