Often the most important part of demonstrating that a school can increase its size in transport terms is demonstrating that the school will implement a successful Travel Plan, in order to encourage modal shift away from private vehicle drop-offs and pick-ups.
Travel Plans will include measures such as:
- School bus routes
- Cycle parking and facilities changes
- Cycle proficiency and safety training
- Walk/cycle to school week
- Walking bus routes
- Encouraging active travel in classrooms (making posters, guest speakers, etc.)
- Park and stride routes
Travel Plans are live documents that include a monitoring process over a number of years in order to record the change in travel patterns at the school. The monitoring surveys may take a number of different forms depending on the requirements of the school and of the local authority.
MBL have experience producing Travel Plans that accord with local highway authority requirements, as well as experience with the TfL STARS Travel Plan system.
Other Supporting Documents
To support the developments at Royal Holloway University, MBL were required to produce a substantial BREEAM compliant environmental assessment. This work also required extensive modelling of the local highways network and the operation of the university car parks.
MBL have also supported schools through the production of Constructive Vehicle Management Plans (Claremont Fan Court School), designing new car park and access layouts (Caterham School, ACS Cobham), and producing feasibility reports for changes to the school transport operations.
MBL keep up-to-date on changes in transport planning practices, and have produced blog articles on the School Streets initiative and London’s Healthy Streets.
New Educational Developments
As well as providing advice to existing educational facilities, MBL have supported the development of new nurseries (for example The Little Blue Door in Chichester) and schools at the site allocation and planning application stages of development.
Providing advice for new developments can vary significantly depending on the context in which these facilities are coming forward. For example, MBL have supported the allocation to the Local Plan of a site in Edenbridge which may include a secondary school, alongside a quantum of housing. This process has involved providing advice on the expected level of trip generation, the new bus facilities required to accommodate the students, estimating the level of students for the new school who would be based within the new housing, among other projective work.
In another example, MBL have supported a planning application for a new nursery converted from a former care home (which itself was a former large residential dwelling). This work was focused around the sufficient provision of cycle/scooter/buggy parking, and the parking impact of the nursery on the local residential streets.
