Beat the Street Your school is going to be part of “Beat the

 Beat the Street
Your school is going to be part of “Beat the Street”, an exciting communitywide project to encourage more people to walk, scoot and cycle. The project
will run from Wednesday 6 May to Wednesday 17 June.
Your town has been chosen for this project because it has high levels of
nitrogen dioxide caused by road traffic. More information on this is available
here:
www.wiltshireairquality.org.uk
The town’s air quality action plan group are keen to work with the wider
community, including schools, to encourage a reduction in short car trips,
which is an important step to improve the air quality in the town.
Beat the Street is designed around a “real world walking game” concept
where people compete for points by walking or cycling around their local area:
to work, to school or as part of a daily routine. Activity is recorded by touching
personalised smart cards onto electronic sensors called Walking Tracking
Units (WTUs) or “Beat Boxes” which are place in and around the town.
Participants can follow their progress on a website. There will be a prize for
the winning school in the town.
Thorough this project, we aim to encourage people out of their cars for short
journeys.
It is important to establish a baseline to measure the success of the project
and we will do this using an online questionnaire. You will be able to input
details of children at different schools on a single questionnaire. If you do not
have access to the internet at home, you can request a paper copy of the
questionnaire from the school office. Any queries relating to this should be
addressed to Wiltshire Council and not the school, using the email address
travelplanning@wiltshire.gov.uk or by telephone 01225 713483.
The questionnaire will also give you the opportunity to say how your journey
to school could be improved. The list overleaf gives some suggestions about
improvements – you will see that there are a variety of options, not all of
which cost money but may need a commitment of people’s time.
The survey can be accessed at the web link below or via your school website
and will be open from 16 March for two weeks:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/schoolstravelsurvey2014.htm
.Ideas for improving the journey to school
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Car share register
Walking bus
Park and stride scheme (eg from Station Hill car park, or a central
meeting point)
5 or 10 minute walking zone
Active travel map of local area
Road safety training (bikeability, WalkSafe, scooter skills)
Information on public transport
Green travel week/days
Walk on Wednesdays
Walk to school week
Bikers’ breakfast
Awareness raising (publicity on website, assemblies, parents’ forums)
Doctor Bike sessions
Inter-class challenges
Secure cycle storage
Scooter storage
Highway improvements (eg better road crossings)
School crossing patrol