Sustrans has supported Southampton's next generation to change their travel choices since 2012.
Sustrans School Streets helps children reclaim the space outside their schools for play
Our work in Southampton's schools has included:
- greeting children in the playground with a smoothie bike
- weekends full of ‘ditch the stabilisers’ sessions
- over 200 bike and scooter skills sessions
- 76 active travel breakfasts.
Sustrans officers have supported five Southampton schools to achieve Modeshift STARS Gold Award.
In total, we've delivered over 820 hours of skills sessions in Southampton. This includes learn-to-ride, led rides, cycle and scooter skills sessions
Improving the physical environment
We have also carried out projects to improve the physical environments outside schools in Southampton.
After presenting examples of our work elsewhere, we worked on a co-design and street trial scheme at Fairisle School to improve the environment outside the school gate.
And later, we carried out child-friendly streets work in Sholing, through Metamorphosis Horizon 2020 EU funding.
School Streets
In 2019, we worked with the City Council to support six schools to close their streets to through traffic.
This was part of our national School Streets campaign, which opened streets up to children around the UK.
Parents reported an 11.8 percentage point reduction in car travel to school on the day. And 78% strongly agreed that the road was a more enjoyable place to be.