Hands-up Survey 2009 reveals that parents in East Lothian lead the way by not driving their children

Written by Jane Ogden Smith

Tuesday, 29 June 2010 18:48

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^{East Lothian has come first for using sustainable methods of travel to school in the second National Hands-Up Survey 2009. The survey is the largest national dataset to look at the way that children and young people travel to school across Scotland. The survey is a joint project between School Travel Co-ordinators working in Scotland and Sustrans.}

^{During the survey period, 60 per cent of East Lothian pupils walked to school (Scottish average for this is 45 per cent), 6.4 per cent cycled (Scottish average 2.6%) and 1.5 per cent came by scooter or skateboard (Scottish average 0.6 per cent. Only 12 per cent of children are driven to school in East Lothian, much lower than the Scottish average of 24 per cent. The table below gives you the complete breakdown.}

^{The Hands-Up Survey runs on an annual basis in the autumn of each year. Data collection is conducted by schools, instructed by their School Travel Co-ordinator, with support from Sustrans. Data collection took place on one day between the 7th and 11th September 2009 (the same week as the 2008 survey). Completed forms were returned by the school to their School Travel Co-ordinator, with collated datasets returned to Sustrans.}

^{East Lothian School Travel Coordinator Iain Reid says:}

^{‘This is a great result for East Lothian and a testimony to how much effort children, young people and parents in the county put into find sustainable ways of getting to school. The council has supported them by providing safer routes to school, providing road safety training with the police, and with other initiatives like scooter and cycle racks. I hope that we can keep the momentum going and get even more children and young people walking and cycling to school next year.’}

^{L-R: Ellie Mackenzie, Claire Swanston (teacher), Claire Thomson, Iain Reid (School Travel Officer), William Syme and Bethany Whitaker}