Car trips to school are cut by 3.3 million

More children are using public transport to get to school than they did three years ago, figures show today.

Since 2005 schools in London with specially developed "travel plans" have seen car journeys fall by 6.4 per cent - equivalent to 3.3 million annual car journeys, or 12 million fewer kilometres a year.

When all of London's schools have travel plans in place next year, says Transport for London, there will be an estimated six million fewer car journeys in the capital.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: "We have all experienced the congestion, safety, and pollution problems associated with the school run, so it should be applauded that there is now increasingly successful work going on - with TfL working in partnership with schools and local communities - to tackle the issue.

"More than 70 per cent of London's schools now have travel plans, bearing down on unnecessary car journeys and getting people switched on to more environment-friendly ways of travel.

"We expect them all to have a travel plan in place during 2009 - a year earlier than the rest of the country."

David Rowe, head of core programmes at TfL's Smarter Travel Unit, said: "Cutting the number of cars doing the school run helps to cut local pollution and congestion as well as working more exercise into many children's routines.

"Travel plans encourage schools to choose solutions that are best for them - whether that's a walking campaign such as Walk on Wednesday or a car sharing programme, applying to TfL for new cycle parking facilities or working with us and the local council to make road safety improvements to improve conditions for young cyclists and pedestrians."

The figures were published to mark Walk to School month in the capital, and are the first to show a downward trend in car-journeys to school.

They will be welcomed by environmentalists after a report by a London car club suggested that the number of children being driven to school had doubled in the past two decades.

About 70 per cent of schools in the capital now have travel plans which involve alternatives to car journeys.

One third of all car journeys between 8am and 9am in London on school days are "education-related", says TfL.