Appendix A - Unsuitable routes policy 2025 to 2026
The County Council's Unsuitable Routes Policy is based on guidelines produced on behalf of Road Safety GB which have been compiled based on existing legislation, best practice, health and safety and case law. Case law has found that distance and not safety is the appropriate test and that your child should be accompanied where necessary. Assessments must look at the relationship between pedestrians and traffic only. Personal safety of children travelling alone are not considered. The County Council is not legally obliged to provide free transport just because you perceive the route to be unsafe on the grounds of personal safety.
If the shortest walking distance between your home and the school your child attends is within the statutory distance and you believe that the walking route could be considered as unsuitable, the County Council will undertake an assessment of the whole route, or those parts of the route which you may think are unsafe. When determining whether a route is suitable consideration will be given to the age of your child and consider footways, verges, walkable roadside strips, footpaths, and bridleways.
The County Council’s assessment of the route will consider the following factors:
Road accident record
The accident record for the route over a minimum of 3 years will be taken in to consideration. The existence of an accident record will not necessarily indicate that a route is unsafe for the journey your child takes to school. This will depend on the type, nature and relevance of the incidents.
Traffic flow
Where the two-way (one way of a dual carriageway) traffic flow is below 240 vehicles per hour the road is assessed as safe to cross. This is based on the original County Road Safety Officers Association criteria and is equivalent to one vehicle every 15 seconds and allows a reasonable gap time to cross a 7m wide road at a walking speed of 3 ft per second. A written account of any vehicle counts will be kept.
Accompanied by a suitable adult
Parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring their child’s safe arrival at school. In all cases when assessing the suitability of routes, the County Council will assume that the child is accompanied, where necessary, by a parent or other responsible person and is suitably clad.
Therefore, the existence of the following factors will not usually make a route unsuitable, although they would be considered:
- lonely routes
- moral dangers
- canals, rivers, ditches, dykes, lakes, and ponds
- railway crossings
- routes without street lighting
Definitions
Available route
An available route is any highway or public right of way which is maintained by the Local Authority. This includes roads surfaced or unsurfaced, footpaths, bridleways, or public rights of way. If the shortest walking route is felt to be unsuitable, however an alternative walking route is available which may be classed as suitable and which falls within the distance criteria, assistance with travel costs will not be awarded.
Footway
A footway or roadside strip is one that is adequate usable walking width for the circumstances. To be usable it should be clear of overgrowth ie shrubs and trees obstructing the footway.
Sight lines
A sight line is important when crossing the road or walking along the roadway. For a route to be non-hazardous:
- lines of sight for a pedestrian must be enough for them to see oncoming vehicles and have sufficient time to safely take avoiding action. Vehicle speeds on individual roads would need to be considered.
- lines of sight for a driver must be enough for them to see pedestrians walking along the carriageway and have sufficient time to safely take avoiding action at whatever speed they are travelling.
Step off
A “step off” is where pedestrians can step clear of the roadway onto a reasonably even and firm surface such as a roadside verge.
Traffic interrupter
Any feature in the highway or environment that create gaps in the traffic flow eg traffic lights, roundabouts etc
Points to consider
The whole route from your home to your child's school will be assessed at the time children would normally be travelling to and from school. Where possible the assessment will be carried out on foot.
1. Availability of a footway, verge, walkable roadside strip, footpath, or bridleway
If these are available, then these parts of the route cannot be unsuitable, if there are suitable crossing points.
If the width of the roadside footway/verge/roadside strip falls to less than 1m in width and an alternative footway is not available, then traffic counts will be necessary at the points where this happens.
2. Suitable crossing points
When undertaking the measuring of walking distances to school the County Council will consider suitable road crossing points when assessing the suitability of the route.
Where road crossings are necessary, it will be assumed that if the half hour two-way traffic flow (one way on dual carriageways) is below 240 vehicles, the road should be reasonably able to be crossed.
Conversely, where the half hour two-way traffic flow (one way on dual carriageways) is in excess of 700 the road is assessed as being unsuitable to cross, unless there are ‘traffic interrupters’ (eg traffic lights) which provide suitable crossing gaps at reasonable intervals.
The assessments will not apply if pedestrian crossing facilities are provided.
In cases where central pedestrian islands are provided in the centre of the road to assist pedestrian crossing movements and there are no other pedestrian facilities available (ie pelican/zebra crossing), traffic flows will only be taken in one direction.
For roads where the half hourly traffic flow is between 240 and 700 vehicles, the ability of being able to cross the road comfortably four or more times in each five-minute period would normally indicate a road which is reasonably able to be crossed by an accompanied child. In cases where central pedestrian islands are available, the number of crossings will be taken from the island to the footway and vice versa.
The County Council will undertake a half hourly traffic count for both the morning and afternoon during school terms to coincide with the times the route would be walked.
When determining the number of vehicles in any time period, the following 'passenger car equivalent values' (PCU's) will be used as multiplication factors:
- 3 pedal cycles 1 PCU
- 2 motorcycles 1 PCU
- 1 car 1 PCU
- 1 Light Goods Vehicle (under 3.5 tonnes) 1 PCU
- 1 Bus/Coach 2 PCU
- 1 Heavy Goods Vehicle 2 PCU
3. Roads without footways
On roads less than 6.5m in width, where there is no public footpath or walkable verge or refuge points and where the traffic exceeds the maximum vehicle numbers per hour relevant to the width of road shown in the table below, these would be deemed unsuitable routes.
In addition, if the proportion of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s) using the route is more than 10% of the highest total traffic volume figure, relative to the road width shown in the table below, the route would be deemed unsuitable.
In undertaking the assessment, however, if there are verges which may be ‘stepped onto’ to avoid vehicles, where there is insufficient road width for the vehicle/s to pass, then these parts of the route are not deemed to be unsuitable, unless the number of vehicles exceeds that which corresponds to the appropriate road width shown in the table below.
A step off or verge is a minimum area that a pedestrian could use as a refuge which is defined as 1.5m in length and 0.5m in depth and relatively level.
Where no ‘step-off’ exists for any part of the route the number of vehicles using the route will be counted at this point in accordance with the road widths shown in the table below.
| Acceptable maximum length of single sections of road without verges before broken by a verge or refuge | Acceptable number of vehicles per half hour by road width | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| >3.5m road | 3.5>4.5m road | 4.5>5.5m road | 5.5>6.5m | |
| 10m | 201-240 | 301-360 | 401-480 | 501-600 |
| 15m | 161-200 | 241-300 | 321-400 | 401-500 |
| 25m | 121-160 | 181-240 | 241-320 | 301-400 |
| 35m | 81-120 | 121-180 | 161-240 | 201-300 |
| 55m | 61-80 | 91-120 | 121-160 | 151-200 |
| 75m | 41-60 | 61-90 | 81-120 | 101-150 |
| 120m | 31-40 | 46-60 | 61-80 | 76-100 |
| 160m | 21-30 | 31-45 | 41-60 | 51-75 |
| 240m | 11-20 | 16-30 | 21-40 | 26-50 |
| 300m | 6-10 | 9-15 | 11-20 | 13-25 |
| 500m | 1-5 | 1-8 | 1-10 | 1-12 |
In order to make the assessment, the above table will only compare the number of vehicles at those places on the route where the lack of ‘step-off’ exists.
Example: 4.5>5.5m road width
There are 3 parts of the route where no verge exists.
- Part 1 the gap is 15m there were 200 vehicles counted - Route suitable.
- Part 2 the gap is 120m there were 27 vehicles counted - Route suitable.
- Part 3 the gap is 300m there were 21 vehicles - Route unsuitable.
Where HGV vehicles (this includes farm vehicles on rural roads) in the hourly two-way traffic count on the un-verged portions of the route are more than 10 in number or where this constitutes more than 10% of the total traffic volume, then the route would be classed as unsuitable, irrespective of whether the traffic volume was reached.
4. Pupils not attending their nearest schools
In cases where a pupil chooses not to attend their nearest school, travelling expenses to a more distant school on the grounds that the route to that school is deemed to be unsuitable will be not considered.
5. Re-imbursements and unsuitable routes
Where the Council determines that a route in unsuitable, any claims for retrospective re-imbursement of travelling expenses will only be backdated to the date that a travel pass application was made.