Children Demand Safer Routes to School, especially by Bike

At a Safe Routes to School conference of Chiswick school children and local politicians this week, I demanded that Boris Johnson deliver on the long-promised schemes to improve cycle routes in Hounslow.

The conference was organised by Louise Oldfield, a parent at Cavendish School and the Hounslow Cycling Campaign and involved children from Chiswick Community School, and the local primary schools. The purpose was for children to discuss with local politicians, their concerns about road safety and their suggestions to encourage more children to cycle and walk to school. Local children from several schools told us how scary their journey to school can be and what is needed to encourage them to walk and cycle to school.

Hounslow is introducing 20pmh zones around schools and has a good record on cycling. We discussed a number of specific issues that could be implemented fairly easily such as enforcing parking restrictions outside schools in the morning, and improvements to junctions and crossings on local roads.

But unless Boris Johnson releases the long-promised funding for linking up existing routes on the major roads owned by Transport for London, and funding the cycle super-highway, we cannot make the main roads safer for cycling and get more people onto their bikes.