Park and Stride
What is it?
The school finds a safe place for parents to park, away from the school gates, this could be a pub, place of worship, or similar destination. They then walk their children the remaining distance to school.
What are the benefits?
- Reduces congestion and potentially dangerous traffic outside the school gates.
- Encouraging children to walk at least part of the way to school brings health benefits and contributes to the recommended 60 minutes of activity per day
- Park and Stride gives pupils an opportunity to learn essential pedestrian skills and road safety awareness.
Living Streets Guidance document [PDF]
Implementing a Park and Stride scheme
- Identify potential locations where parents could park safely for a short time whilst they walk to school and back, e.g. pubs, places of worship, supermarkets, leisure centres or local businesses. (Ask parents and pupils to suggest suitable sites too).
- Approach the owners of the locations to seek permission for parents to park. Depending on the site, the council may be able to help promote the scheme, for example by painting footprints on the footways between the parking site and the school. (Take care to discourage abusing the generosity of local landowners – some failed schemes have been because of parents using sites to park all day).
- Promote the sites to parents as potentially safer, quicker alternatives to trying to find a space outside the school gates.
- Consider having a launch day or week with events and stickers / badges for those taking part.
Other Ideas
- Combine with a Walking Bus operating from the Park & Stride site.
- Combine with a car-free walking zone.
- Include park and strides in incentive schemes such as WoW.
