Does anyone have any experience of walking buses?

[batgirl]

Hi - my children's school is taking part in the Safer routes to School iniative and a lot of parents have expressed interest in a walking bus. A group of us are beginning to consider how to set one up - I wondered if any one here had any experience of them that you might be able to pass on? Thanks!

yes we were thinking the same but it seems ot nme it would take s o much organsisation it was easier just to take htem youreslf!

have you a travel plan adviser formt he Council?

We have thought a little about it in the past, but, as you say, the organisation involved would be huge. However, I do want to try to gve it a go - I am trying to find out if there are any schools in our LEA running one.

Thanks for the suggestion of the travel plan advisor - I will contact him (though, I got the impression at the meeting he ran, that he was primarily involved with road re-designing!) - could be a good start.

My DS1's infant school has a school travel forum which is quite active, batgirl. Might be worth you starting one with like-minded parents? They have got a lot done to do with reducing congestion around the school etc. And next week they are runnign walking buses (I think it's walk to school week) every day on a trial basis, various routes. I have offered to be a parent on one for one day, will report back. Certainly would suit us next yr when we have to drop DS1 and DD in 2 very different places both at 9am!

Oooh, thank you Clary - I would love to know how that goes - sounds a good idea to try out different routes. I'll look forward to your report

Are your DS & DD going to be at different schools? It's such a pain if they don't stagger start times, most of our local schools/pre-schools etc do, but inevitably they can't cover every possible combination.

batgirl, yes, will report back when we have done it. DS1 goes to local infant school, we walk there, but DD will be going to fab council run nursery which is a 10-min (at least) drive in theother direction! No council pre-schools in our area (long story I won't go into). Because it's a proper nursery school it runs 9-11.30, lunch 11.30-1, pm 1-3.30. But anyway, they are relaxed about 9am start time and we can actually drop DS1 off at 10 to 9 (if he'll let us!) so we should get there. Just the idea of the walking bus going past the end of our road is fab!

A school round the corner from us has a walking bus that's been running successfuly for a year or so. It has parents wearing flourescent tabards and it's great seeing the walking bus snake along the road. This is on our council website - I'm sure this guy would be happy to help explain how it works:

"Parents interested in volunteering to organise a walking bus for their child?s school can find out more about how the scheme works by contacting Andrew Fulton on 01895 250 950.
HTH

just an update, DS1 went on the walking bus yesterday. DH said they looked so sweet in their fluorescent tops. Was a big success, 19 children on our route alone, and that's on the 1st day. Will post again with how it actually went when I have done it myself (at end of the week).

Thankyou cocococo - I will give him a call.

Clary - very pleased to hear that your week seems to be going well, I will be very interested in how you get on as a helper. Is it intended to become a permanent thing if the week is success?

Batgirl, yes, the idea is to launch th ebuses in Sept if enough people commit. It went well on Fri, we walked to the start point so as to be a helper in fluorescent jacket, adn basically walked along the road, stopping to pick up waiting passengers. I guess it was slower than just walking just me and the children, but good for them to walk with others and v useful if you wanted to drop off your child and then off to nursery/work. Think that would work best on a quid pro quo basis ie drop child one day, help the bus the next. By the end of the route there must have been 15 children and 25+ people in total on the bus, one of four routes running all week to our school (about 250 pupils) so if they were all that good that's about a quarter of the pupils on a walking bus which is fantastic. Hopefully this will continue to work.

It sounds lovely Clary, I hope it is a great success when it starts for real in Sept.