Green travel plans focused on schools give children a safer, healthier, and more climate-smart daily life. In Linköping, children, parents, and school staff are working together to improve the traffic environment around schools. The benefits for the climate and health come as a bonus.
When parents drive their children to school out of concern for their safety, they are at the same time contributing to an unsafe traffic environment. If more people cycled, walked, or took public transportation to school, the traffic environment would become significantly calmer. Reduced car traffic is also good for the climate and improves air quality around the school.
Cycling or walking is also an excellent way to get daily exercise, which is important for health, well-being, and academic performance. Research shows that 80 percent of Swedish children do not get enough exercise, while the proportion of children and young people in Sweden who bike to school has decreased significantly over the past few decades. In the 1970s, 90 percent of children walked or biked to school; by 2019, that figure had dropped to 52 percent.
Here, Linköping offers a step-by-step guide on what more schools and cities can do to get started.
Assemble a working group and identify who else needs to be involved. This group may include municipal officials with expertise in urban planning, traffic, climate, the environment, and school administration, as well as relevant staff such as teachers and custodians, and property owners/managers. If necessary, parking companies, public transportation operators, the police, the National Traffic Safety Association (NTF), and the Swedish Cycling Association can also be involved.
Involve children and parents in understanding the current situation This involves examining the traffic situation around the school, particularly in the morning, as well as how the route to school and the traffic environment are perceived by students, parents, and staff. To collect data, methods such as traffic counting (recording the number of vehicle crossings), site visits, drone footage, or other measurements may be used. In addition, children’s routes to school are mapped through a school assignment that classes and guardians complete using digital mapping tools and surveys where they answer questions about how they travel and how the route to school is perceived. A show-of-hands survey in classrooms about how students got to school today, conducted during specific weeks, is a simple way to gather statistics on travel habits.
Identify measures that can improve the situation regarding children’s travel routes and promote sustainable travel. These measures may take the form of information and campaigns or changes to infrastructure, such as speed reduction measures, crosswalks, drop-off and pick-up zones, and bicycle parking.
Work on the measures that have been jointly agreed upon. This work involves integrating the measures into budget and operational planning. Ensure progress and implementation through regular check-ins. Communication and information measures that are developed can be effectively implemented in more schools, preferably throughout the entire municipality.
Follow up and report. Follow-up may include, for example, dialogue with the school and parents about how the traffic situation is perceived after measures have been implemented, conducting surveys using mapping tools and a show of hands, and repeating measurements such as hose measurements, site visits, and drone footage. Part of the reporting process involves producing a simple report or memo that outlines what has been done at each school.
Municipal processes and fluctuating budgetary conditions can result in a long delay between the proposal of measures and their implementation. Behavioral changes also take time, and staff and students often change during the process. When planning and conducting follow-up, it is important to keep in mind that it reflects the experience of school routes and travel behaviors to and from schools over time, rather than changes in the behavior of specific individuals.
Active transportation for children also encourages sustainable travel habits among their parents.
The voices of children and young people regarding their traffic and school environment are being heard.
The municipality will have a solid basis for determining which measures need to be prioritized and where.
The summary of the “Green Travel Plans” approach presented here is the result of a collaboration in 2025 between Viable Cities, SKR (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions), the City of Linköping, and a dozen Swedish municipalities as part of the Climate-Neutral Cities 2030 initiative, with the aim of facilitating, deepening knowledge of, and accelerating and broadening the implementation of the approach in the municipalities. The work was carried out in 2025 with funding from Vinnova as a feasibility study to prototype an accelerator designed to support the implementation, scaling, and dissemination of Green Travel Plans and other successful initiatives for climate-neutral and sustainable cities at the local level.
The City of Linköping, which has been working with Green Travel Plans since 2013, is a pioneer among municipalities and has inspired a number of other municipalities to launch similar initiatives, not least Lund and Östersund. Twelve cities at various stages of implementing Green Travel Plans have participated in the work and shared experiences and insights, concrete tools, methods, and documents with one another and with the project. These have been collected and compiled to inspire and guide other cities and their local stakeholders in their joint efforts to implement and further develop Green Travel Plans. Implementing green travel plans contributes to reducing climate emissions and a range of other positive effects, such as smoother daily travel, better accessibility, improved public health, inclusion, and gender equality. Evaluations of travel to areas with green travel plans show, among other things, reduced congestion and lower climate emissions over time. The travel plans have also created a clear forum for dialogue on sustainable transportation with employees, employers, and property owners.
To support the implementation, dissemination, and scaling of new working methods, knowledge resources such as guides, descriptions, and tools are needed. A key insight is that the value of these resources increases significantly when combined with opportunities to meet, discuss, and learn together with others who are working to implement similar working methods.
Viable Cities is a strategic innovation program with the mission of achieving climate-neutral cities by 2030, ensuring a good quality of life for all within the planet’s limits. The program is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova and Formas and coordinated by KTH.
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