More parents in Bucks are leaving school run cars at home

A reduction of 14% has been achieved in the number of cars being used around schools at peak times, according to the figures from traffic planners.

Only 30% of pupils travel to school by car now compared to 44% five years ago.

Turnfurlong School in Aylesbury has even got pupils to write their own environmentally-friendly travel plan.

Many more pupils and parents are walking or cycling to school in response to the new government target that 65% of journeys should be "sustainable" by March this year.

Bucks traffic planners say they have achieved 69% partly helped by specially trained tutors talking to schools about pedestrian safety.

Incentive schemes

They are now looking for a further cut of 3% over the next two years but accept that maintaining the current levels of low car usage on the school run takes a great deal of effort.

Bucks traffic planner Mark Oldfield said: "We achieved the reduction by concentrating on the schools and encouraging them to design environmentally-friendly traffic plans."

One successful innovation was the crocodile or walking bus where groups of children went to school together under the supervision of an adult who helped to make it a fun, sociable and educational experience.

Mr Oldfield said: "Incentive schemes were also used and one was called Go for Gold where children had a card stamped if they came to school on foot, by bike or using another sustainable method.

"We worked on the children to reach the parents and then word-of-mouth persuaded other schools of the benefits and it took off.

"Other incentives were the difficulty in finding places to stop near schools, complaints by residents living nearby and parents' concerns about safety.

"The trick now is to keep up the progress with more innovative ideas to cut school run car use by another 3% by 2008.

"There is also a critical point above which we will not get people to leave their cars behind but we are continuing with the message that cars should be used only when needed and for parents to think about the journey to school and use their vehicle for only part of the trip."