Travel Access Guide for Five Dock Public School

Five Dock Public School’s new travel access guide (TAG) encourages children to use active travel to get to and from school.  

Active travel is about people using walking, public transport and cycling to get to places, and relying less on cars.   Launched today by Mayor Angelo Tsirekas, the TAG provides parents, children and the wider school community with information on travelling to and from the school, and how to enter and leave the school safely.  

‘This is a great initiative promoting health and wellbeing within our local community as well as the sustainability of our local environment’, said Mayor Angelo Tsirekas. ‘The Travel Access Guide will help reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions throughout our City as well as promote physical activity by encouraging parents and students to get outside and walk to school, to use public transport rather than drive and to help reduce traffic congestion and improve parking in the local area.'  

Funded by Sydney South West Area Health Service’s (SSWAHS) Walk to School Research Program, the TAG is one of many initiatives aimed at getting more children to walk to school. The director of SSWAHS’s Health Promotion Service Associate Professor Chris Rissel said the TAG outlines walking routes, bus routes and highlights train stations, so that families can see that active travel is an easy choice and a healthier alternative to driving their children to school every day.  

‘Currently 60 per cent of year 4 and 5 students from Five Dock Public School are driven to school, 36 per cent walk and 4 per cent use public transport, even though 59 per cent live a kilometre or less from the school,’ Prof Rissel said. ‘Often parents drive children to school, so they can then continue their trip to work. The TAG also provides parents with travel information, so they can continue their active journey to work after dropping their children off at school,’ he said.  

The benefits of active travel include:

·  Reduction of traffic congestion around the school
·  A safer school environment
·  An opportunity for physical activity for parents and students
·  An opportunity for children to practise road safety skills.  

‘We are very pleased that Mayor Angelo Tsirekas launched the TAG today. City of Canada Bay Council in its Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Measures also encourages residents to use alternative forms of transport, so this program fits in perfectly,’ Prof Rissel said. 'Five Dock Public School is one of 24 schools in Sydney’s inner west to be involved in The Walk to School Research Program. We have worked very closely with parents and teachers to produce this TAG and we are all very proud of it,’ he said.