It's a familiar sight at schools across the country: a line of slow-moving vehicles pulling up to the curb before a child jumps out. A similar scene plays out in the afternoons, only with children hopping into cars waiting to pick them up.
Fewer Canadian kids have been walking or biking to school in recent years, raising concerns about their declining physical activity and the environmental impact of vehicle emissions from all those drop-offs and pick-ups.
A program called School Streets is designed to shift that pattern by creating car-free zones around schools at certain times. In 2024, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced $3 million in funding to accelerate the implementation of the program across the country.
But just how well does it work? A University of Toronto Mississauga PhD student set out to evaluate the program's impact - and the findings were significant.
At four schools studied, the program decreased overall vehicle use for drop-offs and pick-ups by 35 per cent, vehicle emissions by 31 per cent and related ambient air pollution in school boundaries by 93 per cent.
"More people actively travelled," says lead author Kerstyn Lutz, a PhD student in U of T Mississauga's department of geography, geomatics and environment, referring to students who walked or biked to school.
"There was excitement about the program that you could see and feel."
School Streets began in Italy in the early 1990s as a response to morning and afternoon traffic snarls around schools, later spreading to other European cities and urban centres across Canada.
"In Canada, we're seeing drastic decreases in the number of students using active school travel alongside a significant increase in personal vehicles," says Lutz. "School Streets is trying to tackle that problem by making the streets around schools feel safe. The goal is to reclaim these spaces so that kids and parents feel good about walking, playing and socializing on streets instead of driving."
In 2022, Lutz and her team conducted analyses at four schools in the Greater Toronto Area - in Markham and Mississauga - running School Streets initiatives.
They manually counted vehicles before, during and after the interventions and then used those counts to create traffic simulations and generate emissions and air pollution estimates through computer modelling.
School Streets programs worldwide vary widely in the timing of their implementation, ranging from single-day events to years-long projects. They also involve different combinations of government, school and community partners.
"In our study, the timing and implementation team affected the program's impact at each school," says Lutz.
The study found there were greater benefits when teams were cross-disciplinary, including school leadership, municipalities, parents and other stakeholders. School board involvement also produced longer-lasting positive effects.
"Combining these success factors by having a diverse team representing multiple perspectives led by a school leader could be a good strategy for other School Streets projects," she says.
Lutz also witnessed the practical results of street closures. "There was some chaos among drivers, at least in the first days of an intervention, with lots of three-point turns," she says, adding that a well-communicated diversion plan for drivers could avoid confusion and potential accidents.
"The push for active travel still has to make safety a top priority."
The impressive drops recorded in vehicle use, emissions and air pollution only lasted while School Streets program was in effect. Once it ended, the reductions were far more modest: around five per cent.
"The programs are aiming to educate parents, students and the school community about active school travel so that, hopefully, there's change over time," Lutz says.
Overall, Lutz says her research confirms that School Streets works but there's room for improvement.
"Using the insights in this study to guide future School Streets implementations could make them even better."
