New competition to get children scooting to school (From This is Hampshire)

New competition to get children scooting to school

8:20pm Saturday 6th October 2012 in News By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

CHILDREN are invited to take part in a scooter challenge to win parking equipment for their school.

Hampshire County Council has launched the inter-school competition, which runs from October 1 to 12, during International Walk to School month.

The aim is to get as many schoolchildren as possible scooting to and from school during the two weeks, and the school with the highest average number of children scooting will win a Scooterpod – parking equipment for scooters worth £460.

Figures from the most recent National School Census in 2010 revealed that about a third of children are driven to school.

Councillor Mel Kendal, executive member for environment and transport, said: “I hope that those who take this opportunity to scooter to school, or walk, when they would normally travel by car, will notice a difference and continue to walk or scooter for the rest of the school year. By doing so, we should find that congestion on our roads, particularly at peak times, decreases.

“In the UK, over half of primary school children do not walk to school regularly. Although this is unavoidable in some cases, being driven to school every day means that children do not learn valuable lessons about road safety.”

The scooter challenge is part of the council’s travel awareness campaign My Journey, which encourages people to consider their travel options for everyday journeys.