THE students of White Hills Primary School are at the forefront of a plan to ease traffic congestion and get more active. 

“When we first surveyed our students, 36 per cent were actively travelling to school,” principal Damien Jenkyn said. 

“But at our most recent ‘Ride to School Day’ we had 56 per cent participate – and we’d like to make that a regular figure.” 

Since last year, the school has been piloting an active travel program, which the City of Greater Bendigo aims to roll out to schools across the city. 

According to the ‘Integrated Transport Land Use Strategy (ITLUS),’ 89 per cent of all households in urban Bendigo are within three kilometres of a secondary school and 58 per cent within one kilometre of a primary school. 

Yet about 30 per cent of all traffic on the city’s roads around school drop off and pick up times is school related. 

Statistics like those make school transport “low hanging fruit” as council looks to reduce car traffic on Bendigo roads. 

“We’re very keen to see a revolution among young people,” mayor Peter Cox said at the release of the final ITLUS report on Monday. 

“[We want] those who are going to school to be saying to their parents that there is a better way of doing it – and getting in the car everyday is not it.”

Cr Cox recalled his own experience of walking to school with mates as some of the best days of his life.  

It is a sentiment to which White Hills year 5 student Penny Hendy can relate – many decades after Cr Cox packed his lunch box into his backpack for the last time.  

Since her family moved to within a 10 minute walk from school last year, Penny’s enjoyed alternating between her bike, scooter and walking with friends to and from class. 

“I like best that you can see the flowers if you take the scenic route,” she said. 

And Penny is not in the minority, the school survey found 86 per cent wanted to travel to school actively. 

Principal Jenkyn said concerns about safety were the primary reason so many of those children were still being driven to school.

He said the school had been working with council to identify traffic “black spots,” as well as making sure children travelled in groups and were supervised. 

As the routes continued to become safer, the principal said more and more of his students would commute to school without a car. 

“Below grade 3 they’re, in most cases, too young to ride, so we’ll never reach 100 per cent,” he said.

“But if those old enough can ride, scoot or walk to school and their parents leave the car at home, then that’s great for everyone.”