| Walking School Bus in Nicosia | |
| Brief Description | Active Access was an EU funded project that aimed to promote active travel, walking and cycling instead of using motorised and carbon-dependent means. The main objective of Active Access was to increase the use of cycling and especially walking for short every-day trips in local areas, in order to benefit people’s health, as well as the local economy. Cyprus was one of the participating countries and implemented several practices as part of the project, one of which was the Walking School Bus (WSB). The WSB is actually a group of students who, alongside parents or guardians, follow predetermined routes from various parts of town in order to go to their school. Its main purpose is to raise the awareness of students on the effects that motorized transportation has on the environment and on people’s health and to prompt them to change the way they go to school (e.g. being driven there) towards more sustainable modes of travel (e.g. walking or cycling). Surveys took place before and after the practice in order to measure students’ engagement with the WSB, as well as their willingness to switch to more sustainable methods of transportation. At the end of the practice, students talked about their experiences with the WSB and drew paintings and wrote poems about the issue of sustainable mobility. |
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| European Country/Countries | Cyprus |
| Field | Moving: Walking |
| Type | Intervention |
| Impact | Health, Equity, Environmental sustainability |
| Status | Completed |
| Target Group | Children & adolescents |
| Evaluation | Yes |
| Level | Local |
| INHERIT Perspective | The Walking School Bus activity in Nicosia, Cyprus as part of the Active Access programme, was included within INHERIT because of its positive effects on health and the environment: it helps young children engage become more physically active by engaging with active modes of transport as well as increase their environmental awareness. Having more children walk to school means fewer car trips, which translates to less harmful emissions for the environment and people’s health. Students can adopt this behaviour change from a younger age and, in doing so, promote their health and protect the environment. |
| Detailed description PDF filename | Download file |
| Relevant links | http://www.active-access.eu/docs/D4_1_Walking_audit_report.pdf |
| Contact | Active Access is co-ordinated by: Tom Rye t.rye@napier.ac.uk and Catriona O Dolan C.O’Dolan@napier.ac.uk Edinburgh Napier University; Transport Research Institute Merchiston Campus, 10 Colinton Road Redwood House UK – EH10 5DT Edinburgh; United Kingdom Tel.: +44 131 455 2210 |