Letter - The effectiveness of school Travel Access Guides (TAGs)

Abstract

The proportion of children using active transport (walking, cycling or public transport) to travel to primary school has decreased substantially over the past few decades. There are many advantages from encouraging more active transport for children. As part of a major cluster randomised trial encouraging primary school students to walk to school, 12 schools involved in the Central Sydney Walk to School Research Program developed a Travel Access Guide (TAG) as a strategy to increase active transport. A school TAG is a document with a map of the school and its surrounding vicinity, and highlights walking and cycling routes and nearby bus and train services. It can identify and address issues that may be hindering increased active travel to and from a school. To evaluate the longer-term impact of the 12 school TAGS, school principals were telephoned three years after the development of the TAGS and asked about the use of the TAG. Of the 12 school principals involved with the program, 10 were successfully contacted and completed the telephone survey. Four of the 10 schools still used the TAGs (40%), while the other six had ceased using the TAG at some time since the completion of the program.