An assessment of the benefits of the walking school bus in Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract

A Walking School Bus involves parents or other adults escorting a group of children on a set route to school. The first one was established in 1996 in Canada. They can now be found in a variety of countries, including New Zealand. Many of the benefits associated with them are based on the general benefits of affecting a modal shift away from cars in favour of walking. However, there is still relatively little known about the less quantifiable benefits of them, and there has been some suggestion that they can adversely affect children’s independent mobility. This research examined the perceived benefits of Walking School Buses by interviewing people involved in the day to running of the scheme in Christchurch, New Zealand. The results suggest that walking school buses have many social benefits and that if anything; they encourage children’s independent mobility.

Introduction

An increasing proportion of children are being driven to and from school in private motor vehicles, at the expense of more active and sustainable modes, such as walking. Hillman (2002) found that in the United Kingdom the proportion of children taken to school by car has doubled in the last 15 years, while the proportion travelling on foot has declined by a quarter. Similar findings have been seen in New Zealand (O’Fallon et al., 2002, Cottam, 2001). This notable decline in children walking to school, and the related dramatic increase in those being driven, is of significant concern.

In response to these rising concerns, local government and other interested organisations around the world have introduced a variety of road safety initiatives to schools in order to reduce the dominance of cars on the school journey. One such initiative has been the development of Walking School Buses. A Walking School Bus (WSB) involves parents or other adults acting as drivers in which they “walk a set route, much like a school bus, collecting children along the route and delivering them safely to school” (Engwicht, 1992). The first WSB was started in Canada in 1996 (Go for Green, 2004), and since then WSBs have been set up in the UK, the USA, Denmark and New Zealand.

There are relatively few evaluations of walking school buses, and the methods generally used for evaluating transport projects are not appropriate. While inherently walking school buses are good and are accordingly encouraged by government, there are still questions over the benefits of them, particularly in relation to whether they inhibit children’s independent mobility. Traditionally transport investment schemes are assessed based on financial costs and benefits. In New Zealand, the Project Evaluation Manual (PEM) is used for the economic evaluation of roading projects (Transfund, 2003a), while the Evaluation Procedures For Alternatives to Roading (ATR) are used for non-roading projects (Transfund, 2003b). Both focus primarily on the financial costs and benefits of the projects. In the UK the Department for Transport has developed the ‘New Approach to Appraisal’ (NATA) (Department for Transport, 2004). This aims to go beyond cost-benefit analysis and includes elements that cannot be given financial values. Despite this it has been suggested that this type of approach was “not appropriate for a number of reasons” (Mackett et al., 2003, p. 181). They suggest that one of the primary reasons for this is that few of the suggested positive outcomes of WSBs are easily quantifiable. This paper adds to the debate by attempting to identify the benefits of walking school buses with a particular focus on the impacts on children’s independent mobility. To address this question, this paper will begin by reviewing the research that has looked at the benefits of walking school buses. The methods adopted in this research are then introduced. Following this, the results of the research are presented and finally discussed in light of the previous literature.