St. Johns National School

Transcription

1 Walkability Audit 21 st April 2015 St. Johns National School Ballisodare Co Sligo Roll Number: 17838F

2 St Johns National School is mixed primary school located within a housing estate in Ballisodare village, Co. Sligo. The school has been awarded 3 green flags for litter and waste, energy and water and started the Green-Schools Travel theme in September Most pupils travel to school by car - 68% of the pupils surveyed in June There are 24% of pupils walking to school from the nearby housing estates. As most pupils live close by there is great potential to increase the numbers of walkers and cyclists to school. A Walkability Audit is a methodical examination of how pedestrian-friendly a route may or may not be. The word Walkability means the ability to walk.

3 Members of the school population identified a possible walking route to school to audit. Objectives: 1. We wanted to see if the roads to the school are safe to walk 2. We wanted to encourage more people to walk to school 3. We wanted to identify park n stride locations and/or drop n hop locations 4. We wanted to identify any issues and propose possible solutions

4 We used a number of tools on the audit to record our findings: Map of the route Recording sheets Recording devices (timer, trundle wheel, etc.) Hi-visibilty vests Camera Pencils/Clipboards

5 Description of the route audited: It was decided that the walkability audit would assess routes from the school to a number of housing estates that the pupils live in in order to encourage these pupils to walk to school. We walked from the front entrance of the school to Cloondara passing through Stella Maris. We returned along an alternative route which passed the secondary school and Woodbrook Heights. There is a footpath along the route and a pedestrian crossing near the roundabout. A crossing area is also marked at the entrance to the Cloondara estate.

6 We noted the following findings from our Walkability Audit: Positive Issues: 1. Footpath along routes 2. School Ahead road signs on both approaches to the school 3. Parking at Park and Stride locations 4. Pedestrian crossing on N59 Negative Issues: 1. No Pedestrian Crossing or lights at School 2. Fast moving traffic along N59 3. Footpath narrows and is unfinished in places 4. Entrances to houses off footpath 5. Vehicles parked on footpath 6. Footpath cracked in places More details and photos of these findings can be viewed in the pages following.

7 A summary of our recommendations is below: 1. Walk on footpath at all times Wear high visibility jackets Walk in single file where footpath is narrow Use marked crossings where possible 2. Be careful of traffic moving (especially reversing) Entrance to secondary school Entrances to houses At Park and Stride locations (Supervalu /roundabout) 4. Be careful when walking around vehicles parked on footpaths

8 Always walk on footpath Be very careful of vehicles coming out of entrances especially at secondary school Crossing N59 at Cloondara painted lines are faded Crossing at Woodbrook Heights entrance- painted lines are faded

9 Walk in single file where footpath narrows Be very careful of traffic when passing entrances to houses along footpath and outside school Be careful of cracked footpaths and loose gravel and potholes School Ahead signs on approach to school no lights

10 How long will it take to walk? Roundabout Distance from school: 580m Time to walk: 7 minutes Cloondara Distance from school: 406m Time to walk: 6 minutes Stella Maris Distance from school: 74m Time to walk: 1 minute Woodbrook Heights Distance from school: 135m Time to walk: 1minute

11 Thank you for reading our report. Please contact us with your feedback using the details below. Green-Schools Travel Education Officer Lisa McDaniel Phone: School Details: Name: School: Freda O Donnell / David Dillon St John s National School Ballisodare Co. Sligo Phone: stjohnsballisodare@gmail.com