Walk or Wheel Wednesday Challenge

Why challenge classes to walk, scoot or cycle to school on Wednesdays?

School-generated car trips contribute significantly to week-day traffic and parking congestion at the school gate, which has safety implications for school pupils. Some of the reasons parents give for driving their children to school are:

• Time pressures.
• Cost of alternative transport.
• Concerns about dangers (from strangers and traffic).
• Increased mobility so children don't need to attend neighbourhood schools.
• Convenience for working parents.

Any programme to encourage walking to schools has to address these issues.

The benefits of walking to school include:

• Improved health and fitness of children leading to improved academic performance.
• Reduced exposure of children to vehicle emissions.
• Reduced likelihood of children being involved in a crash.
• Children learn how to be safe pedestrians.

Initially Walking School Buses were seen as the solution in Christchurch, but they:

• Tend to have an average life expectancy of only a year or two (although some have lasted considerably longer).
• Depend on a diminishing pool of parent volunteers to supervise.
• Do not involve the majority of children who continue travel to and from school by car.
• Work best in higher socio-economic areas.

So a programme to involve children not fortunate enough to be members of a Walking School Bus was developed in 2004.

Background

Since 1999 many Christchurch primary schools had taken part in annual Walk to School Days. However, although popular, these one-off events did not lead to a modal shift.

In 2004 Christchurch primary schools were invited to have a Walk to School Day once a week for six to eight weeks, instead of just once a year. The programme has grown to include over 30 schools with a combined roll of over 11,000 children and has been run in both spring (fourth) term and summer (first) terms. Schools from all decile areas have taken part. On average, 79 per cent of children in participating schools have walked, scooted or cycled to school during the challenge each term, and some schools are now running their own challenge all year.

What was the secret of its success?

Recognition of extraordinary effort
Some classes achieved 100 per cent participation 100 per cent of the time and to encourage this level of involvement, special prizes were offered. In some schools more than one class with this level of participation received a special award.

Addresses parents' issues
Parents of out of zone children who claimed they live too far from school for their children to walk the entire distance could drive them to within ten minutes walk from the school and accompany them from there on foot.

Peer pressure
Classmates put pressure on one another to take part so their class could win the prize, and in turn parents reported being put under pressure to allow their children to walk to school on Wednesdays throughout the eight weeks of the challenge.

Ease of administration for schools
Every class got a wall chart on which to record each pupil's involvement. Totals were recorded by the teacher on the tear-off section at the bottom of the chart and these were returned to the Council to give accurate participation data and to determine the winning class in each school.

What impact did the challenge have on participating school communities?

• 99 per cent reported that they thought the challenge was fun and 97 per cent said they considered it to have been a success.
• 91 per cent said that they had undertaken supporting classroom activities. These included integrating the challenge into their keeping safe and healthy programme and using it for a statistics project.
• Some teachers reported that the challenge had inspired parents to establish their own walking school buses.

Public recognition and approval of the Walk or Wheel Wednesday Challenge is high. In a telephone survey of 400 Christchurch residents undertaken in June 2008:

• 45 per cent of respondents recalled the Walk or Wheel Wednesday Challenge.
• 25 per cent of respondents had participated in the challenge.
• Of those who had participated in the challenge, 39 per cent said their children would now walk, scoot or cycle to school more often.
• 22 per cent said their children had been walking or wheeling to school prior to the challenge.
• 91 per cent of respondents considered promoting walking or cycling to school on Wednesdays to be valuable.

The future?

Summer’s Coming Let’s Get Moving

In on-going support of the national Feet First initiative the Council organises annual walking and cycling  to and from school promotions, such as the Summer’s Coming Let’s Get Moving Walk to School Week in November 2011.