Greater Manchester sets target of 100 School Streets by 2028

The number of School Streets in Greater Manchester is set to increase from the current 30 to 100 by 2028 under plans announced by the city region's Mayor Andy Burnham and Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey.

A letter from the Mayor and Commissioner will be sent to all schools in Greater Manchester via the 10 local authorities, inviting them to register their interest in launching their own scheme.

Currently around one-third of traffic at peak times in the morning or afternoon is from children being taken to school, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) estimates. Reducing reliance on car trips and encouraging healthier, more active lifestyles is key to improving health and wellbeing – with 22% of reception aged children and 39% of Year 6 children overweight or obese in Greater Manchester, it said.

Dame Sarah Storey said that School Travel is one of her six priorities in the Active Travel Mission. “This School Streets programme is one of the ways in which we can start to make the journey to school safer for children, their families and school staff,” she said.

“Safety and convenience are two of the main barriers to people choosing to walk, wheel or cycle to school and interventions like School Streets are a good starting point for improving the whole journey for those travelling to school and onward about their day.”

Rolling out more schemes is part of a wider Travel to School strategy due to be presented to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority later this month, she added.

“Generating a focus on schools travel is so important so that whole journeys can be catered for, and people given a genuine choice and alternative to having to use their car for the school drop off and pick up.”

Andy Burnham said: “In my election manifesto, I pledged to create an expanded School Street programme in Greater Manchester, building on the pilot School Street scheme we launched in 2021 to help even more schools create safer travel in the coming years.

“The letter going out to all schools is the first step in making that commitment a reality, and I invite school communities, including parents, to get in touch if they are interested in launching a new School Street in their area. This isn’t about imposing schemes on people either, we just want to help facilitate new schemes where there is a wish from the community to have one.”