The Welsh Government is supporting the development of Active Travel Routes with the Road Safety and Safe Routes in Communities Grants, available to local authorities in Wales.
Students at Radnor Primary School in Canton have been working with Cardiff Council and Sustrans Cymru on a Safe Routes in the Community consultation.
Safer Routes grants, alongside the support of our Active Journeys Programme, are helping schools such as Radnor Primary to safely, easily and confidently travel to school by foot, bike and scooter.
Welsh Government support
The Welsh Government have committed to increasing the number of children who travel actively to school.
This is made possible by funding streams including Active Journeys and Safer Routes, to improve the environment for walking, cycling, wheeling and scooting around schools.
Making active travel routes safer is an important part of the process to successfully increase levels of active travel amongst school communities.
Young people have their say
Radnor Primary school, Canton are part of our Active Journeys Programme, having already shown a strong commitment to active travel since 2017.
Recently, students at Radnor Primary have been taking part in some Safe Routes in the Community engagement work to consider improvements being developed on the streets around the school.
This was an important opportunity to allow young people to have their say about future active travel developments.
Students were asked to look at plans, and answer survey questions to discuss whether they agreed or disagreed with the proposed developments.
Students gave feedback on their own ideas, using a grid map to pinpoint specific locations along travel routes that they had issues or concerns about.
Some ideas proposed included informal crossing points, traffic filters, extended pavement areas and traffic calming chicanes.
Most of the pupils said they would like to see priority for cycling on their school streets and explained their reasons for suggesting changes.
The consultation is a great example of young people being given the opportunity to have their say on travel developments that impact their future journeys to school.
Cardiff Councils Active Travel Team
The student’s feedback on the proposal, as well as new ideas, have been submitted to Cardiff Council.
The future of Active Travel at Radnor Primary School
Patrick Williams, Sustrans Cymru’s National Programme Manager for the Active Travel Fund, reflects on the benefits and outcomes based on the student's suggestions:
Key suggestions, coming from the engagement work and requested by the students included:
- better informal crossing points
- extended pavement areas
- natural greenery
- widened pavements
- priority for cycling.
At Radnor Primary, the Safe Routes in Communities funding, in addition to our Active Journeys Programme continues to support Active Travel for safer roads, cleaner air and healthier children.
Ensuring routes to school are safer and more accessible can give students the confidence to travel actively more often.
