Italy, Milan
By: School of via Bottego, Milan
www.iwalktoschool.org

Children get to school by themselves - enjoyably and safely

Solution
The walking bus encourages children to walk to and from school in the safety of a group under supervision of one or more adults. Safe routes are created and become a fun part of children’s daily routine. They meet their friends, talk and play, and share experiences outside the school. Gradually this builds up the children’s autonomy and personalities. It is also good exercise, and frees up time for the parents, who would otherwise have to take the children to school. What’s more, it improves children’s road safety awareness, improves pedestrian safety, and creates friendlier neighbourhoods as people get out and interact with one another. Finally, it reduces traffic pollution and accidents involving child pedestrians.

Background
Walking bus is an initiative by some teachers at an elementary school in Milan to improve the health and the well-being of children. In Milan, a large part of daily traffic congestion is caused by taking children to and from school by car. However, it’s difficult for children to walk on their own, because of unsafe roads and pavements often being blocked by parked cars. The walking bus protects and organises the groups of children.

Current state of development
The pilot project began in 2000 and finished in August 2004. Now, the programme continues with volunteers of grandparents, friends and teachers. The system is based on an idea first proposed in the USA and UK, which had the same or other kind of problems in implementation: little support from the public administration and bad infrastructure. In Milan the solution has been enriched with many activities inside and outside the school, such as cultural and art festivals, board games and art work which have increased the neighbourhood’s respect for children and the environment. Nowadays, there are very few costs.

The benefits

Society
Walking to school means that people don’t use their cars; this reduces traffic, accidents and pollution, and eases congestion on public transport. On a social level, the system recreates the sense of neighbourhood that existed a long time ago but has been lost in big cities. Developing this system could see schools as promoters of new ways of living, involving the whole community and increasing its responsibility towards children.

Environment
This system reduces traffic jams, air and noise pollution near schools and makes the streets more pleasant to live in. It also reduces fuel consumption, thus improving the environment.

Economy
This solution both gives parents time to do other activities, and saves money on fuel.

The quality of the experience
The children have the fun of going to school together on a daily urbanadventure. Elderly who help have the satisfaction of feeling useful in society.

Future development possibilities
To create communication tools and infrastructures to help children become independent and skilled.

Authors:
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Emilia Douka, Luca Peluso

8:00am: the meeting point in square Constantino
8:05am: the grandparents and friends arrive
8:08am: the first children arrive and slowly the group increases
8:13am: the walking-bus is ready to move
8:15am: the ‘red’ group moves
8:23am: the group arrives to school

Children are the main users of this scheme, and like it because it gives them the chance to socialise with each other outside school. They would like to adopt the solution permanently, getting more and more autonomy over the five years of school.

Its success is due to the interest from the school’s director and teachers and to the curiosity of children about doing new activities with new people. But there are problems: parents are still scared to let children walk to school alone and public administration doesn’t support this project.