Greater Manchester aims to encourage more children and young people to travel to school actively and sustainably. The city region has unveiled a draft School Travel Strategy that seeks to increase the number of primary, secondary, and further education students travelling by walking, cycling, or using public transport by 2030. This is part of a joint initiative by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), and the 10 local authorities.
The strategy is aimed at tackling the barriers preventing youngsters from walking, cycling, or using public transport. The draft strategy will be subjected to public consultation in November, as approved by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on October 25. Every day, around 460,000 pupils travel to more than 1,200 schools and further education establishments across Greater Manchester.
Around 15 per cent of all trips in Greater Manchester are for education, and during the peak periods between 8am and 9am or 3pm and 4pm, almost half of all trips are education-related. Dame Sarah Storey, Active Travel Commissioner, said: "School travel is one of my six priorities in the Active Travel Mission. "It is important that we build on the positive impact of school streets and broaden the scope of the work to make better use of all modes within the Bee Network for journeys to and from places of education.
"In order to enable young people and families to travel to school and further education on foot, bi.