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Walking buses

This year the world’s first ever walking bus, which started in Hertfordshire in 1998, celebrates its tenth birthday!

Parent volunteers walk the children to school, with a ‘driver’ at the front and a ‘conductor’ at the back, collecting children from ‘bus stops’ along the route.

It was pupils from Wheatfields Junior School in St Albans, along with the Safer Routes to School team from Hertfordshire County Council, who first set the wheels in motion and a decade later this innovative idea has been picked up and imitated all over the world.

Back in the Nineties it was a groundbreaking solution to the school run, but it has expanded until there are now more than 60 walking buses at schools in Hertfordshire and 700 across the UK. The scheme has also crossed continents and travelled as far as New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

It all started as an innovative response to increasing concerns about traffic congestion around school gates, air pollution and children’s safety during the school run.

Not only does it cut down on the number of cars on the roads at peak times, it helps children learn good road sense and keeps them fit. We also know from our surveys that children actually prefer to catch the walking bus with their friends rather than being cooped up in a car.

Most pupils who used the first walking bus at Wheatfields, are now in secondary school and still walk to school – the scheme has had a positive impact on their continuing health and fitness.