Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team create a bubble of active travel

Looking to increase the uptake of pupils actively travelling to school. Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team looked to the #Stay Safe Get Active Walking Bubble feature developed in the Modeshift STARS Education platform.  

The Council has a great track record for promoting sustainable and active school travel. They had recently setup a number of School Street programmes across the county, but realised for some schools they needed to find an alternative initiative to support an active journey to school. 

In partnership with the schools, Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team planned to setup and establish the Walking Bubbles with each of the schools. The Council jumped straight into action, promoting the Walking Bubble information in their schools newsletter supported with direct communications to their schools.  

Ten schools got in touch and Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team issued them with the Walking Bubble resources available from the Modeshift STARS Shop delivered in partnership with Modeshift Partner Brightkidz. 

The Walking Bubble initiative has been well received with All Saints School and Yaxley School noting increases in walking following the roll out of the scheme. Informal discussions with the participants highlighted that the Walking Bubble maps had encouraged people to unlock the day with a walk to school rather than drive. It is also clear that the success of the scheme can also be attributed to the fantastic School Travel Champions, who work hard in school to encourage people to get involved in schemes such as this.  

“This scheme has been a valuable tool in helping us to support our schools to enjoy safer active school travel.  The resources provided are excellent, and though it has been hard to do any meaningful evaluation yet due to the lockdown situations anecdotal evidence and observation has appeared to show a reduction in numbers driving to school.” says Rosemarry Mullen, Road Safety Officer at Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team. 

Nick Butler Modeshift STARS Accreditation Manager says “Schools are incredibly busy places. We respect that the time schools have to deliver initiatives such as this is often in short supply. This is a great example of the strong relationships that can be formed between the local authority and school to deliver outstanding work. By promoting sustainable and active travel pupils have more opportunities for physical activity in a less congested environment.” 

Looking to the future, Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Team will be working hard to support more schools. They are also looking to take the Stay Safe Get Active Walking Bubbble scheme to those schools that have identified parking issues.  

Modeshift STARS Education is supported by the Department for Transport. If you would like more information about the Stay Safe Get Active Walking Bubbles or the Modeshift STARS scheme visit www.modeshiftstars.org. If you would like to see the range of great resources available from the STARS Shop delivered in partnership with Brightkidz visit www.brightkidz.co.uk/modeshiftSTARSshop