| The Walking School Bus | |
| Short Description | The project is set in the city of Heidelberg and targets the primary school children. The “walking school bus” is a group of school children at least in the beginning accompanied by a voluntary adult (“a bus driver”), walking the way to school together. They can “get on and off the bus” at certain places (“bus stops”). The aim of the project is to teach children the traffic rules, to give them confidence to make their way from home to school and back on their own later on, and to offer them some exercise before classes start. This way, they are more balanced and concentrated and can satisfy their communicational and social needs. An additional benefit is the CO2 savings that result from less car traffic in the school area. Important success factors for the project are firstly the schools’ participation and secondly the parents’ willingness to accompany the groups of children on their way to school. In case of an accident, children as well as volunteers are automatically covered by an insurance of the county Baden-Württemberg during the project. |
| Topic | Moving – active mobility |
| European Country(s) | Germany |
| Field | Moving: Walking |
| Type | Intervention |
| Impact | Health, Environmental sustainability |
| Status | Ongoing |
| Target Group | The prime group which is targeted are the primary school children of Heidelberg, especially first-grade pupils. Also, the groups of teachers are involved who function as contact persons at the participating schools, and the parents who support the walking school buses voluntarily. |
| Evaluation | No |
| Level | Local |
| INHERIT Perspective | This project has been chosen for inclusion because it has potential to improve both health & wellbeing of pupils due to additional movement when walking to school and to reduce proximal and distal pressures on the environment due to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, as they are not brought to school by their parents in a car. The intervention creates the opportunity and motivation for behaviour change by offering the “model” of the walking school bus which is supported by the local schools. At the same time, it actively develops the capabilities of young pupils to behave safely on the street. |
| Detailed description PDF filename | Download file |
| Relevant links |
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| Contact | Amt für Umweltschutz, Gewerbeaufsicht und Energie, Kornmarkt 1, 69117 Heidelberg, email: umweltamt@heidelberg.de, tel.: +49 6221 58-18000 and 58-18010 |
