Active Routes to Schools

Our Active Routes to Schools project encourages young people in and around Oban to commute to school more actively, and contributes to making the area a safer, more enjoyable place to walk and wheel. We recognise the wide range of benefits that active travel can bring to individuals and communities, as well as the need to reduce our carbon footprint through changing the way we travel.

Background

This project was born out of the Active Travel Plan for Oban, which we delivered in 2022 as part of the Sustaining Choices programme with Planning Aid Scotland, supported by the Argyll and Bute Council and Argyll and Bute Coast and Countryside Trust (ACT).

Through conversations with hundreds of people in our community, and discussions with other organisations, we identified that ‘safer routes to school’ was a top priority for improving active travel in our town. Our engagement showed that less than four kids regularly cycle to high school and confidence was low amongst both young people and parents. 

For this project, we gained a new member of the team! Phil, our Active Travel Coordinator, has been leading this project since August 2024.

Have an opinion or want to chat about your ideas for active travel in Oban? Want to volunteer to teach Bikeability?

Project Aims

  1. Championing active travel for schools in Oban & Lorn.

    As well as supporting the amazing work that is already being done in our schools, Phil has been getting into schools to help set up new initiatives and deliver-in school sessions on walking, wheeling and cycling.

  2. Supporting Bikeability with Live Argyll Active Schools

    Bikeability is the national cycle training programme that gives children the skills to cycle safely and confidently in their communities. We are working closely with LiveArgyll staff to support existing delivery and enable more schools to take part. We’d love to reach the point where every child in the area takes part in Bikeability as part of their education.

  3. Mapping Active Travel in the community

    We want to map the enablers and barriers to active travel within our school communities. This involves asking parents, teachers and the children about their experiences, to identify safe routes to school as well as areas where improvements can be made, opening up a discussion on what changes could be made.

  4. Evidence gathering

    Mapping active travel is part of a larger piece of work to gather information from the community - on top of what we gained in 2022 - to build a strong evidence base for active travel interventions in our community. We will share this with stakeholders including Argyll and Bute Council, TrafficScotland, SusTrans and more, to influence the right decisions to be made regarding active travel in Oban.

Funders

A huge thank you to our funders, for enabling us to take action on our findings from our Active Travel Plan for Oban.