Focus of work
Solve the School Run’s vision is a safe, clean and green school run for every child. In England, 40% of primary pupils and 26% of secondary pupils are driven to school, creating an estimated 3.8 million car trips all happening in a short time window. This contributes to congestion, pollution and road danger.
This project explored the issue of collecting data of how children get to school, as without this information, it is challenging to understand what neighbourhoods, towns or regions in England are doing well, where is being left behind, and what policies and solutions are having a successful impact.
Impact
Research on environmental impact of school run
Solve the School Run conducted a research project on the impact of school run car trips at a South East London junction on the Lambeth/Southwark local authority border. The research analysed Transport For London bus times and air pollution monitor data and statistically modelled their variation in school term time vs school holidays.
The analysis showed a 50% increase in both air pollution and public bus delays during term time for all schools as compared with the school holidays.
Solve the School run achieved extensive press coverage for this work, featuring in national publications such as the Guardian and Daily Mail.
Developed core arguments for the government to reinstate school Mode of Travel (MOT) data collection
Responses from a sample of 10 mostly London-based local authorities confirmed that existing methods of data collection were worse than the school census MOT data in terms of reliability, involved duplication of council and school effort, and gave none of the broader benefits of systematic data capture.
Solve the School Run used this information to pull together the core arguments for the case to re-instate the school census data. This was published in long-form in Transport Xtra.