Active Travel for Children

Exercise is a great start to the day, be it walking, cycling or scooting. Arriving at school having burnt calories means children are more alert and attentive at school as well as more likely to sleep better due to getting more exercise. The majority of schools have an amount of vehicles dropping children off currently. It’s an easy routine to get into. However we should be working against it, for the well-being of children, as well as to reduce pollution and amount of vehicles on the road … and it will save parents money!

Encouragement for children to be active in getting to school is provided by schools participating in schemes such as

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel (2 weeks in March),
Living Streets Walk to School Week (1 week in May),
Bikeability Cycle to School Week (1 week in September),

The hope with these schemes is that it creates a habit to avoid getting a ride in a metal box to school. As of 2026, not one Whitby and district school currently participates in these events! In the Travel Plan for Whitby School adopted in 2025 it finally included cycling, and Glaisdale primary encourage cycling at least one day a week. In fact, for North Yorkshire as a whole the number of schools participating in the Big Walk and Wheel event per year are 2022 (4), 2023 (12), 2024 (8) – very low levels, with no sign of improvement.

Bikeability

Bikeability training is currently being offered to all year 5 and 6 pupils via primary schools (level 1 and 2 accreditation respectively). Training of this nature provides a level of confidence in riding a bike at an early age and is essential for all children. There is a level 3 Bikeability as an option at secondary schools (how to ride in more complex road situations) but it is for parents to fund, and we are not aware of it being utilised by Whitby School.

Bikeability training is great, however ideally there should be balance skill training at an earlier age, and it should be followed up by having places to use these skills. The lack of cycle infrastructure close to the residential areas where these children live, as well as the lack of a 20mph speed limit on (particularly residential) roads, typically means that they have little opportunity to build their confidence further by using what they have learnt. This reduces the value of the training.

Primary School

Years 5 and 6 children are offered Bikeability Level 1 and 2 training. This is very limited, and we feel that additional benefits could be obtained by introducing active travel at an earlier age.

The benefits of active travel to children will include : improved focus, self-discipline and brain development, as well as improved cognitive development and decision-making skills leads to increased self esteem, developing lifelong healthy habits early in life.

In addition, cycling/scooting develops key skills for early years children, such as : increased balance and coordination skills, wrist stability which transfers into other school activities, body/spatial awareness confidence, bi-lateral coordination develops and transfers into PE/dance/art activities.

In terms of current activity levels, we assessed Airy Hill School in 2024 : of 17 (year 5) pupils surveyed, 58% (10) walk to school, 42% (7) go by car (average distance 1 mile), and 0% wheel (cycle/scoot). To put those numbers into context, the national average is 49% walk to school.

Secondary School

Cycle to school was never part of the travel plan for the Whitby Secondary Partnership – largely down to the infrastructure around the school sites not being considered safe for this to take place, and even walking to school, whilst part of the travel plan, had significant areas of concern due to the proximity of busy roads. The merger of Eskdale and Caedmon schools in 2024 to be Whitby School resulted in 3 requests being made to North Yorkshire Council (NYC) Highways department

Add a lay-by on Mayfield Road for coaches to pull in, rather than block the carriageway. NYC said that they have no plan to provide this.
Reduce speed limits in front of both sites, preferably 20mph to fit in with approved motions in NYC scrutiny committees. NYC said that they would only review speed limits after installing traffic lights on Spital Bridge junction (Dec 2025). The NYC Area Committee subsequently requested 20mph over this bridge in Dec 2025.
Improve the crossing facilities at Mayfield Road – Prospect Hill junction. NYC said that the crossing is working normally.

Consequently there are significant changes that need making to reach our goal of having cycle to school as a viable and safe option. Positive steps have since been taken, and Whitby School has a new Travel Plan, with clearly defined steps to getting more walking and cycling. There are plans to arrange cycle storage at both sites as the next step.

SURVEY : Walk / Cycle to School in Whitby (2026)

To assess what measures would help improve levels of walk, wheel, cycle and scoot to school we did a survey, in conjunction with Whitby School, for school pupils during January and February of 2026. You can find the survey HERE. We asked the following questions

How frequently do you WALK or CYCLE to school currently? Between 0 and 10.
Would you be in favour of having residential estates that you walk through + areas outside schools as 20mph zones (i.e slower cars) so that it is safer to WALK or CYCLE? Yes | No.
What other measures do you think are needed for your route to school? e.g : speed limit change (where?), path improvement (where?), better lighting (where?), or something else?
If routes are made safer, how frequently would you then WALK or CYCLE to school? Between 0 and 10.
If routes are made safer, which would THEN be your preferred way to get to school? Walking | Cycling | Other
Which school is this for?

This was responded to by 62 pupils / parents (around 5% of the available sample size, so very respectable for surveys in this area). The results [link to raw data] can be summarised as follows :-

84% of respondees attend Whitby School, whilst the others were distributed between the 4 primary schools in the town;
92% of respondees support the idea of 20mph speed limits in residential areas;
currently the average pupil walks / cycles to school 63% of the time;
if the infrastructure of the routes to/from school were improved, the average pupil would walk / cycle to school up to 86% of the time;

The main comments on route improvements needed (in no particular order) were as follows :-

Lighting : needed on the Cinder Track, Stakesby Vale, Larpool Lane, and Waterstead Lane;
Crossings : needed for Stakesby Road (nr White Leys Rd), Love Lane – Sandsend Road, Mayfield Road nr the school, Four Lane Ends;
Speed Limit Reduction : outside both Whitby School sites, maybe just for the arrival / leaving times – New Bridge reduction desperately needed. Also needed on Helredale Road;
Path : better lit path from Hawsker;
Path : from viaduct along Larpool Lane to Eskdale estates;
Path : path along Stainsacre Lane;
Path : new path through Stakesby Vale;
Mayfield Road : better bus drop-off to make it safer around the bus area;
Mayfield Road : paths need to be wider;
Stakesby Road : yellow lines since parked cars block the view and dangerous to cross;
Southend Gardens : dangerous coming through the tunnel if cars coming;
Bike Storage : needed at Whitby School;
Wheelchair Access : East Whitby School and Whitby School Airy Hill site both have very bad access;
Wheelchair Access : not possible to get from Kirkham Road to back of Beevers due to many steps, so have to go a long way round;
Pavement Parking : around East Whitby school on both sides as well as up Helredale Road, should be enforced;
Parking Restrictions : needed around many schools;
Cycle Paths : needed in many places, nothing available, many roads just too dangerous to cycle on, e.g The Carrs, Mayfield Road, Helredale Road;
Council Maintenance : badly maintained gutters causing splashing, overgrown vegetation that needs cutting and causing narrow pavements and need to walk on road, dog muck on pavements.

Our Comments

We would like to thank everybody who took the time to give us their thoughts.

Some points

The percentages (Q1 and Q4) cannot be taken as a measure of how many pupils use active travel to/from school, since many arrive by bus from outlying places, and so likely did not complete it due to it being about walk/cycle to school. That said, the difference between what a pupil does now (63%) and what they would do with some improvements (86%) does show a significant opportunity to increase the active travel levels.
The survey did not assess the differences between parental opinions of safety for their children walking/cycling to school compared to children’s own opinion.
Many of the comments align with items in the Whitby Active Travel Plan and hopefully will be addressed in time.
Vehicle speed is a major issue for the majority, and this is something that needs to be tackled at North Yorkshire Council level.