School travel plans

Essentially, the coordinator needs to manage complex relationships, understand local community needs and traffic issues, be aware of regulations and legislation, and have the ability to tap into council resources and build networks as needed.

The working group needs to be representative of the school, its community and appropriate transport agencies (see the steps for the action planning phase for more detail). The time needed for the working group will vary and depend on the findings for each school. As a guide, three to four meetings may be required during the action planning phase, with a meeting each term during the implementation phase.

The source and amount of funding for a school travel plan are critical issues to consider when initiating a project. Operating costs will be incurred throughout the plan’s development (eg for administrative support and survey data collation). Generally, councils fund the cost of the plan. Depending on the overall size of the programme, project costs may be able to be incorporated into transport budgets or specific funds may need to be allocated.

Funding for school travel plans is made available from Land Transport NZ to approved organisations (eg local and regional councils). Up to 75 percent of the total cost of a project will be funded through its National Land Transport Programme.

The time required for participating in the project is a significant cost for stakeholders. For schools, this may include teacher release time so staff can attend working group meetings, coordinate school activities and communicate with board members who may be also be involved in the working group.

Schools are generally encouraged to develop policies and rules regarding transport and road safety that can be clearly communicated to parents and children for use within school time. These policies can also be recommended to parents and children on the journey to and from school. This can be time consuming and schools should be aware that being committed to the school travel plan will require them to continue to input time and resources once the plan is developed.

• Gaining commitment to the school travel plan model, including the rationale for the programme, and ensuring all relevant parties are informed and/or involved.
• Managing the overall project within stated timeframes and budgets.
• Monitoring implementation, troubleshooting where necessary, and ensuring evaluation and reviews take place.

• Identifying the stakeholders (along with the school) and communicating the essential components of the programme to them, including the benefits.
• Gaining ongoing commitment from stakeholder groups.
• Empowering stakeholders to develop the skills and networks to address ongoing road safety issues and sustain the school travel plan once implemented.

• Coordinating a working group, and clearly identifying responsibilities and a process for working together.
• Providing ongoing effective facilitation of the working group.

• Organising and overseeing all aspects of data collection.
• Analysing data (or ensuring it’s analysed) and determining results.
• Writing up results in report format.
• Overseeing communication of results to stakeholder groups.
• Coordinating development of action plan.
• Coordinating and managing action plan implementation.
• Monitoring implementation and recommending changes where needed.

Many councils employ road safety coordinators who often play significant roles in school travel plan programmes. Road safety coordinators may undertake or share many of the responsibilities outlined in table 2. The level of assistance provided will vary, depending on availability.

The council traffic or transportation engineer is critical to a school travel plan programme. They are responsible for advising on the plan’s design and implementing any engineering changes (such as footpath repairs or upgrades, pedestrian crossings or refuges, and cycle lanes). In practice, this usually means:

• participating in a working group to represent and provide traffic engineering expertise
• participating in relevant aspects of data collection (eg onsite investigations)
• reporting and making recommendations to the council on school travel plan requirements
• helping to provide relevant resources (eg crash-site data, injury data, maps)
• helping to develop an action plan, especially regarding engineering requirements
• ensuring all engineering improvements agreed in the action plan are installed, maintained and monitored
• liaising with schools on an ongoing basis to address new issues.

Most councils have access to a GIS – a mapping tool that can be used to plot students’ residences on a map. Involving the council’s GIS expert to plot this information map is invaluable and saves time plotting this information manually.

Note: the privacy of individuals must be respected whenever specific addresses are used. Maps may only be used for the school project and should be destroyed when no longer in use.

The Ministry of Education Local Area Roll Projection System may also be useful in determining future (long-term) actions in the school travel plan.

It’s usually more cost effective to outsource or arrange for an administration officer to do the data entry of the travel surveys.

The travel plan coordinator should analyse the data, with council officer assistance if possible, and produce graphs in a form that is easily read and understood.

More information on the survey and data analysis process can be found in the section outlining the data collection steps.

Parking officers are an additional group of council personnel who may make a significant contribution to the programme. This could include, for example, monitoring compliance of drop-off zones outside the school. Not all councils employ parking officers, so their involvement will vary between communities. Their responsibilities in a school travel plan may include:

• assisting with developing an action plan, especially regarding enforcement strategies
• ensuring aspects of enforcement strategies are carried out as agreed in the action plan
• liaising with the working group on an ongoing basis to address new issues.

It’s sometimes possible to engage specialist local or regional council staff where these exist and where there is an identified need for specialist input.

Examples are engineers and transport planners who have an interest in, or dedicated role, related to walking, cycling, school buses or public transport. Transport planners have a role in determining in which schools to establish a school travel plan. Parks and recreation staff may need to be involved if walking or cycling routes go through parks.

School principals generally decide their own level of involvement in a travel plan. Specific roles the principal may undertake include:

• approving teacher time and school resources
• appointing a school travel plan liaison person/lead teacher from the staff (may self-appoint)
• participating in the working group, if necessary
• supplying information to the coordinator to generate a school profile.

It’s useful to secure as much board involvement as possible. Specific roles for the board include:

• approving school participation in the programme (or delegating this authority to the principal)
• providing a representative to participate in the working group
• reviewing and endorsing the action plan and overall school travel plan
• getting involved in monitoring and reviews of the travel plan.

If the principal doesn’t have time to be heavily involved in the travel plan, it’s essential to have a key staff member contact at the school. Their role involves:

• participating in the working group
• helping with relevant aspects of data collection (eg distribution and timing of travel survey, onsite investigations)
• providing specific information for data collation, as needed.

All staff will need to be aware of the travel plan and what it’s about, and it’s likely they will need to be involved in:

• data collection, eg travel survey
• police traffic education sessions, if recommended in the action plan
• distributing school travel plan resources and communications, as required
• developing and delivering integrated transport and road safety programmes
• promoting and encouraging transport choices.

The police education officer’s role may include:

• participating in developing an action plan
• participating in traffic safety education as agreed by NZ Police in an action plan
• training and monitoring school traffic safety teams (school patrols, traffic wardens, bus wardens, kea crossings)
• providing education and engineering advice.

Make contact with your local police education officer as early as possible so the following year’s road safety education can target the school at the best possible time. Your local Land Transport NZ regional office can help you contact your local police education officer.

Police education officers don’t generally undertake enforcement duties as well. If they’re required for both education and enforcement, it’s usually necessary to involve two officers.

Other police staff may be involved, including road policing officers, community constables and iwi liaison officers. Consulting with the local police at an early stage in the process will help establish which officers are appropriate and available in the area. Their role may include:

• participating in the working group to provide expertise
• participating in relevant aspects of data collection (eg onsite investigations)
• reporting and making recommendations to police management on programme requirements
• helping develop an action plan, especially regarding enforcement strategies
• ensuring all aspects of enforcement strategies are carried out as agreed in the action plan
• liaising with schools on an ongoing basis to address new issues.

Schools may identify a range of other stakeholders they wish to be involved in the working group or other aspects of the school travel plan process, such as coordinators from any other local health, physical activity or nutrition initiatives.