Greening the school run

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Bianca examines how school children can be encouraged to consider greener travel options.

The school has always involved itself in how we get here in the morning. Casting my mind back to primary school I remembered the notorious “walk to school badges”. Boxes of badges were provided to reward girls who claimed to walk or cycle to school or to take public transport.

However fun it was collecting badges, that’s all it was; badges accumulating in a box. Soon I took the car to school again. Ava, who was with me in the Junior School explained, “I believe that the badges were successful and children did walk more. However the designs became boring quickly.” She said she even began to lose interest. It seems the promise of plastic pins was not sufficient to get students to make a long-term, healthy change. Poorna in Year 10 agreed, saying, “for some people they were [effective] but people could just lie about walking to get a badge.”

Have we improved?

So how was the Big Pedal more successful? Can we see it as an improved version of the walk to school badges? There was a competition element but it wasn’t immediately tangible. But what was more tangible was the experience of cycling or walking to school for yourself, not so much for a prize. This event ran for two weeks rather than being an ongoing, weekly arrangement. This meant there was a short spurt of time, and the urgency caused more involvement. As a result, more people made the change sincerely, to try and take on a small lifestyle change they knew was beneficial for themselves and for the environment.

Bikes and scooters

Tilly in Year 10 told me, “I decided to cycle to school because, not only is it a great opportunity to catch up with my friends, but it is also [a] much more environmentally friendly way of travelling, as I used to take a train and a bus.”

Where next?

So clearly the formula for success when encouraging change is as follows

  • an achievable yet aspirational goal
  • community
  • and sometimes prizes.

Why not take your bike for a spin, without the reward of a badge? You have nothing to lose (or win!) but can instead enjoy the feeling of contributing positively to the environment and your own vitality.

This article was originally published in a different version on This Is Local London.