Activity Sheet
Active Transport
April 2007
In recognition of the influence of transport on our daily lives and on our health and
wellbeing, VicHealth has formed a number of significant partnerships and funded projects
that can positively influence the uptake of active transport in Victoria. Partnerships exist
with the Department of Infrastructure, the International Council for Local Government
Initiatives (ICLEI), Department of Education and Training, local governments, Planning
Institute of Australia, and Bicycle Victoria to support and develop initiatives and projects
that promote active transport, including:
Active transport is
physical activity
undertaken as a means
of transport, not purely
as a form of recreation.

VicHealth Walking School Bus Project – currently 60 local government areas are
running walking school bus programs across Victoria in 220 schools, with over 3500
students walking on a weekly basis. VicHealth is committed to the long-term vision
of reversing Victorian children’s current mode of travelling to school (from being a
passenger to a walker). www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/wsb

Walking School Bus Symposium – VicHealth developed and ran the Walking School
Bus Symposium in May 2005. It confronted concerns about the ‘bubblewrap’
generation and for the first time brought together hundreds of teachers, Walking
School Bus volunteers and government workers to discuss the health and well being
of our children. VicHealth is committed to reversing the travel modes of school children
over the next decade by encouraging more children to walk and ride to school more
often.

Following the success of the Walking School Bus Symposium, VicHealth ran another
symposium in October 2006 titled Creating Lively Neighbourhoods; Children and
Active Transport. It featured international, national and local perspectives and ideas on
how to create healthy, lively and active neighbourhoods for our children to increase
children’s opportunities to be active. A number of presentations delivered at the
symposium’s can be downloaded from the VicHealth website.

Pedal Pod – Pedal Pods or Cycling School Buses are similar to Walking School
Buses; yet there are some extra things to consider when organising a Pedal Pod.
The Pedal Pod guide was developed by Bicycle Victoria with funding from VicHealth to
provide information and ideas to Walking School Bus Coordinators, volunteers,
parents and schools when planning to develop and implement a cycling school bus.
The Pedal Pod guide and relevant forms can be downloaded from the VicHealth
website www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Content.aspx?topicID=251

Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) – promoting active transport requires planning,
engineering and behaviour changes, with the built environment playing a major role in
our decision to walk, cycle or drive. VicHealth’s relationship with PIA is designed to
raise awareness with health planners of the links between planning, health and
wellbeing. VicHealth also works with universities to build capacities of future planners
and to help create future environments that are more accommodating to active
transport initiatives. www.planning.org.au
www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/physicalactivity
Active Transport

Port Phillip Greenlight Project – this project identified the physical and other barriers affecting children participating in their
walking school bus program. Large roads with speeding traffic and short pedestrian signalling time (‘short green man time’)
were found to be disincentives to walking. The project looked at what changes to infrastructure could be made to make
walking safer and more attractive to the children. The project’s findings resulted in positive engineering changes that
redirected pedestrians as a priority at signal crossings on major roads with more ‘green man time’ on Walking School Bus
routes during school travel times. www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/walking_well.html

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – Australia/New Zealand (ICLEI-A/NZ) – this is an international
membership organisation of local governments and their associations. Its mission is to build a worldwide movement
with tangible global sustainability with a focus on environmental conditions. ICLEI-A/NZ manages the Cities for Climate
Protection® initiative where local councils participate in a performance-based milestone framework to achieve sustainable
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

VicHealth has funded ICLEI-A/NZ to work with local governments and to encourage and promote active transport through
their CCP program. This included the development of an active transport webpage, documentation of case studies
promoting active transport in local government and the development of a quantification tool to measure the triple bottom line
outcomes of children walking on the Walking School Bus as opposed to being driven to school. This included the
economic, social and environmental benefits.

The quantification tool was further developed during 2005 to increase the number of indicators that show a range of further
benefits to the community which are a direct result of children on the Walking School Bus. There are currently
45 councils involved in the CCP program in Victoria.

ICLEI are now building the quantification tool to measure the triple bottom line of all active modes of travel for children and
adults. This will include walking and cycling and should be completed by June 2007. It will be made available as a web
based tool for general access. www.iclei.org/anz

VicHealth contributes regularly to the national and international walking agenda through presentations and participation
in conferences, forums and seminars.
Concurrent strategies promoting active transport across Victoria include:
2

Department of Infrastructure’s Travel Smart Program and School Travel Planning
www.travelsmart.vic.gov.au

Melbourne 2030 Planning for Sustainable Growth Strategy Direction 8
This focuses on initiatives which will give priority to cycling and walking as preferred modes of sustainable travel in everyday
life. Actions include removing infrastructure barriers that discourage active transport, implementing a statewide walking
action plan, developing a principal bicycle network and improving facilities, especially storage, for cyclists at railway stations.
www.dse.vic.gov.au/melbourne2030online/

Individual local government walking strategies
www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/physicalactivity