School Streets improve air quality, studies show

New research shows that closing the roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times has reduced polluting nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 23 per cent and is strongly supported by parents.

To measure the air quality benefits of the new School Streets in London, 30 cutting-edge sensors from the Breathe London network were installed at 18 primary schools across Brent, Enfield and Lambeth to record nitrogen dioxide levels.

Around half of London’s emissions come from road transport, and London’s toxic air already leads to thousands of premature deaths in the capital every year as well as stunting the development of young lungs and increasing cases of respiratory illness. Roads surrounding schools are closed to motor traffic at drop-off and pick-up times, enabling children to walk or cycle to school, reducing car trips and improving air quality.

Since April 2020, almost 350 School Streets, which provide space for social distancing and help to reduce road danger around schools, have been delivered across London with funding from Transport for London and the boroughs to tackle children’s exposure to air pollution and improve their health.

TfL has also published new survey results which suggest that interventions outside schools to make walking and cycling safer are popular with parents and carers and have contributed to a drop in car use. It found that 81 per cent of those surveyed at schools where measures had been implemented believed a School Street is suitable for their school. A further 73 per cent of parents and carers at these schools agree with School Street measures remaining in place while social distancing is still required, with 77 per cent supporting the changes being kept in the long term subject to consultation.    

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “I am doing everything in my power to stop Londoners breathing air so filthy that it damages children’s lungs and causes thousands of premature deaths every year. Since 2016, there has been a 97 per cent reduction in the number of schools in areas which exceed the legal pollution limit and I’m committed to bringing that number down to zero.

“School Streets play an important role in enabling parents and children to walk, cycle or scoot to and from school which has so many benefits, not least in improving air quality. It’s great to see the huge reduction in nitrogen dioxide during pick up and drop off on schools streets – a time where countless children and adults would otherwise be exposed to dangerous emissions. Too many lives are already lost each year as a result of our city’s toxic air and the results of our monitoring study show just how much of a difference reducing car journeys through School Streets makes.”