Private schools, public pollution: the need to better understand school run congestion
The school run is one of the most visible sources of traffic in our towns and cities, with 25% of weekday morning car trips in London being trips to school. For many of us , it’s clear that roads that are heavily congested during term time are often noticeably quieter during school holidays. We wanted to learn more about school run traffic and put some numbers behind that observation.
Working with our friends at Solve the School Run, we launched the School Run Cruncher: a citizen science experiment tracking traffic on 52 roads across England and Wales over the course of a year. Our findings suggest that the school run really does have a substantial impact on congestion and that a disproportionate share of this impact may be associated with private schools - though more research is needed.
The report argues that all children should have a safe and climate-friendly way to get to school. Decision makers should consider a combination of measures, including safer walking and cycling routes, low-traffic areas, bus priority, school buses and shuttles, and practical support for families who could make the journey by cargo bike.
Key findings:
School traffic can make a significant contribution to morning congestion. Across the routes we studied, traffic patterns changed substantially between periods when schools were open and when they were closed, providing evidence that school-related journeys are an important part of the morning traffic problem.
The problem isn't just congestion. More motor traffic around schools means greater exposure to dangerous air pollution and greater risks to children travelling on foot, by bike or wheeling. Solve the School Run's research has found that the school run is associated with a 47% increase in NO₂ levels, while around a third of children's road traffic injuries in London occur on journeys to or from school. Busy roads can make walking and cycling feel too unsafe for families which creates a vicious cycle in which more parents drive because the streets don't feel safe, making them even less safe for everyone else.
Private schools appear to have a disproportionate impact. Our analysis suggests that, on the routes in our sample, some of the difference in congestion may be associated with private schools. Some of the reasons for this might include the longer distances travelled to private schools, which often do not rely on catchment areas in the same way as state schools do; and the fact that private schools, unlike state schools, are not required to produce School Travel Plans setting out how schools will promote safer, healthier and sustainable journeys.
The way schools are organised matters. State schools operate within a framework that includes a statutory duty to promote sustainable travel. Private schools are not generally subject to the same requirements. If private schools are indeed responsible for a disproportionate share of school-run traffic, this represents an important gap in how we currently manage transport impacts.
Why is this important?
The School Run Cruncher is a small-scale experiment, and we don't claim that its findings can be extrapolated to every school or every road in the UK. Nevertheless, this research matters. The transition to a zero-carbon UK isn't simply about replacing petrol and diesel cars with electric ones. We also need to reduce unnecessary car journeys and create transport systems in which walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport are the easiest and most attractive options. The school run is a great place to start because it sits at the intersection of so many of the problems we need to solve: congestion, air pollution, road danger, unequal access to mobility and the carbon emissions from everyday journeys.
Ultimately, children shouldn't have to travel through a landscape of traffic in order to get an education. We need to break the vicious cycle in which dangerous, polluted and congested streets make people feel they have no choice but to drive. Making streets safer and giving families genuinely attractive alternatives can help us do exactly that, while making our towns and cities healthier, quieter and better places to live.
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