Planters to narrow the road and poles to support signs needed to create the Hazelwood Lane school street scheme
As Enfield Council puts in place the infrastructure for a new batch of school streets, the Clean Cities Campaign asks, "Could you do an 'active' school run?"
This week Enfield Council has begun work to install the infrastructure needed to create a new "school street" in Hazelwood Lane. Planters are being put in position at the points where vehicle exclusion zones will start and finish, along with poles which will support signs advising drivers about the restrictions. Also to come are automatic number plate recognition cameras, which will record the registrations of any non-exempt vehicles that drive past the control points.
The Hazelwood Lane scheme will provide a safer, quieter, cleaner and pleasanter environment for children and parents arriving and leaving Hazelwood Schools and the nearby Hazelwood Children's Centre at the northern end of Riverway. It's one of six new school streets coming into effect when the autumn term begins on 5th September. Another will be south of the North Circular in Highworth Road, outside the entrance to Bowes Primary.
Hazelwood and Bowes school streets
Hazelwood
Closure zone: Hazelwood Lane N13, from its junction with Lightcliffe Road to its junction with New River Crescent; Kingsley Road N13; Riverway N13, from its junction with Hazelwood Lane to its junction with The Crest (see map).
Operating times: 8:15am to 9:15am and 2:45pm to 3:45pm
Bowes
Closure zone: Highworth Road N11, from its junction with Union Road to its junction with A406 North Circular Road.
Operating times: 8.30am to 9.15am and 3.00pm to 3.45pm.
The spread of school streets in London and elsewhere is a small step towards restoring one of the freedoms that people of my generation enjoyed when we were at primary and junior school but have been taken away from so many present-day kids because of the domination of the world outside our houses by motor cars. I think that everyone in my class either walked or biked to school and back by themselves from age 5, and we would play with friends on the way home, or explore the nearby streets and fields, improving our fitness and social skills.
It's unrealistic to expect such times to return in the near future, but there's still plenty of scope for the school run by car to be replaced by healthier, less stressful and more enjoyable ways of getting to and from school, and this is the subject of a campaign by Clean Cities, a Europe-wide coalition of NGOs and grassroots groups aiming to encourage cities to transition to zero-emission mobility by 2030.
As we (slowly) ease back into our post-summer realities, you may be considering things you’d like to do a little differently over the coming months. If you’re a parent or guardian, this could include how to organise the school drop-off and pick-up this year.
School run = lots and LOTS of cars
The school run often represents a significant proportion of rush-hour traffic. In London, for instance, 25% of weekday morning peak car trips in 2018 were attributed to school drop-offs – a total of 254,000 trips a day. This period also coincided with the highest rate of serious casualties under 16 years of age due to road traffic collisions.
As well as increasing the risk of road traffic accidents around schools, trips to school by car drive air pollution around our cities’ youngest and most vulnerable lungs. Citizen science has been known to provide key insights into air pollution around schools, in a bid to render this invisible killer visible and drive home the need for ambitious action.
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Bike, walk or bus it to school instead
We know ditching your car and going cold turkey isn’t an option for all, but the school run is a great place to experiment with other ways of getting around – whether that’s organising a “bike train” and rotating responsibility amongst other parents, walking to school in groups, or hopping on the bus. Alongside getting in some quality family time, there are loads of physical and mental health benefits. But don’t take our word for it, read what parents have to say.
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