In the Auckland Region over 30% of all pedestrian related injury crashes involve school-aged children, most on their journey to or from school.

Traffic continues to increase in the Auckland region, leading to more congestion and pollution. The school journey contributes significantly to congestion and poses its own hazards. As traffic gets worse parents are more worried about letting their children walk to school, and are thus more likely to take them in a car. The result is a vicious cycle of more traffic which means that parents are even more worried about letting their children walk to school.

Road Safety Education in Schools

Road safety education should be an important component of the school curriculum, given the large number of children involved in crashes with pedestrians in the urban parts of the region. Road safety education is not delivered in all primary and intermediate schools, so some Auckland children are more at risk than others.

RoadSafe advocates road safety education programmes such as RoadSense Ata Haere should be implemented urgently in schools in which students are held to be at high risk of involvement in a crash, and that incentives for schools to participate in such programmes should be investigated.

School Travel Plans

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) works with local authorities and school communities to help set up school travel plans.

A School Travel Plan is a set of practical actions which aims to improve road safety and reduce car trips to and from school. To find out more about setting up a school travel plan go to the TravelWise website.