Applications open for 20th anniversary of Active School Travel

From Lord Mayor’s Office: More than 130,000 students from 159 local schools have participated in the highly successful Active School Travel Program, with 2024 registrations now open.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that the back-to-school rush on our roads highlights the benefits of the long-running program, which aims to develop healthy travel habits among young people and reduce car use.

“For almost 20 years, the Active School Travel (AST) program has helped change the travel habits of our youngest residents, motivating and supporting students, parents and teachers to find active ways to travel to school,” Cr Schrinner said.

“Over the past five years, our participating schools have recorded a 17 per cent increase in active journeys to school, with 46 per cent of students from those schools now choosing a physically active way to get to school at least once per week.

“Each one of those trips is potentially a car that is left at home, reducing congestion and motor vehicle emissions.

“Council will continue investing in this active and healthy program, with almost $3 million committed to AST over the next four years.”

Since 2004, over 130,000 students from 169 schools have participated in the program.

Schools enroll for a three-year period where they are supported by Council with a range of free resources, including a dedicated AST officer who works closely with each school.

The officer develops rewards, incentives and skills workshops for students and also creates customised active travel maps that help them navigate to and from school.

Greenslopes State School was a participant in the inaugural program and is currently taking part for the fourth time.

The school’s Deputy Principal Sam O’Leary said that the program was loved by students and teachers alike.

“Being involved with Active School Travel means our students are excited each week to walk, ride or scoot to school,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Our parents and community love it and we have seen our supervised walk grow by 250 per cent on average from when we first started.

Cr Schrinner said that in addition to Active School Travel, Council has implemented a number of school safety initiatives to protect our youngest residents and encourage safety around our schools.

“In the past financial year we invested almost $3.5 million on road and footpath improvements which has provided a safer environment for the school dropoff and pick-up,” he said.

“In 2023 so far, we’ve extended the Indooroopilly State High School and Holy Family Primary School zones at Indooroopilly and delivered a new school zone on Curragundi Road near the zebra crossing for Jindalee State School.

“We currently have 83 Speed Awareness Monitors (SAMs) permanently in place in school zones to remind drivers of their speed, with 22 of these installed in the past financial year.

“There are also 17 additional SAM for Schools proposed for installation in the coming months, which will bring us to the milestone of 100 permanent SAMs for schools within four years.

“We have also upgraded almost 20