Eight out of 10 back banning cars around school streets
New research suggests that eight out of 10 people (80%) back banning cars in streets around schools to encourage children to travel by healthier alternatives.
Startline Motor Finance's Used Car Tracker for April shows 49% believe children are too inactive and 47% that too many parents take their kids to school by car.
Also, 29% think the move will reduce school run congestion and 31% that kids can make these journeys independently in safety.
Resistance to the idea is limited: 10% say there are already too many restrictions on how and when cars can be used, 6% say it’s not safe to allow children to make their own way to school, and 4% say kids are already sufficiently active.
Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said: “These questions were inspired by a scheme being launched in Birmingham called Kids Streets, where cars will be banned around schools at pick-up and drop-off times, encouraging children to walk, cycle or use public transport instead. We wanted to ask whether people thought this was a good idea.
“Our results show a high degree of support. It appears the vast majority of people feel the inconvenience of not being able to use their car to take their children to school or even drive down streets around schools at certain times will be more than outweighed by the benefits of kids becoming more active.”
The Tracker research also asked respondents whether they made their own way to school as children, with 77% reporting they did.
Paul said: “It seems people believe walking to school was good for them and will also be good for today’s kids. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Birmingham initiative becomes more widely adopted.”
The Startline Used Car Tracker is compiled monthly for Startline Motor Finance by APD Global Research, well-known in the motor industry for their business intelligence reporting and customer experience programs. This time, 300 consumers and 61 dealers were questioned.
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