West Midlands Active Travel Commissioner Beccy Marston and Road Safety Commissioner Mat MacDonald have announced the launch of the ‘Kids Streets’ programme, with pilots in Birmingham and potentially Coventry in the next few months, says the Coventry Telegraph.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage healthier modes of travel by youngsters, improve road safety and slash congestion at peak times.

Both Commissioners said there were further benefits to be enjoyed for parents such saving money on fuel and freeing up time for themselves instead of spending time on the road.

Some of the measures that could come in through Kids Streets include restricting vehicle movements on roads around schools at the start and end of days or putting in new crossings

Utilising new powers to tackle the widespread issue of pavement parking could also play a major role in the initiative.

Beccy Marston said:

“We hopefully will be piloting something, some concept designs for that in the next couple of months. We’re starting off looking at Birmingham and potentially Coventry. It’s still early doors but generally the idea is bringing together infrastructure investment with behaviour change support.

“We do lots of great stuff but it’s often quite disparate and we can’t measure impact on a regional level very well.

“We’re bringing in partners such as Sport England, public health and environment teams and saying ‘look, we’ve got this approach where we want to look at children’s health and wellbeing, their road safety and parents’ time’.”

(Picture: Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, formerly Sustrans)