May 2015

Busy times here in the Smarter Travel Office,

National Walk to School Week took place from May 16th to 20th , with School Car Free Day taking place on Wednesday the 18th. This was the second annual Car Free Day held in Limerick.


Well done to all staff,students and parents who took part in Limericks second annual School Car Free Day on May 18th.The event saw people ditch the car and use a more sustainable way of going about their daily journey. Park&Stride proved to be a very popular option this year. Park&Stride is a very suitable alternative for commuters who have too great a distance to walk/cycle, they would travel some of the journey by car, park in a safe location and walk the remainder of the way. All schools who send us their results for School Car Free Day will be entered into a draw for a €50 voucher.

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh

Milford National School

Milford National School

For the Month of May the Limerick Metropolitan Area has been signed up to compete against over 50 other cities in the annual European Cycling Challenge. As this was an urban cyclists challenge we were looking for commuter cyclists to sign up and take part. The Challenge consisted of downloading the free app Cycling 365 to your phone and recording all cycle trips made during the month of May. The trips made by the urban cyclists are recorded and portrayed via heat-map. the heat-map will highlight areas most frequently used by cyclists, with the most utilized routes going red in colour. Weekly prizes were on offer throughout the challenge. We would like to thank everyone who took part and helped clock up the kms for Team Limerick.

Limerick Metropolitan Area Heat-map

Preparations are currently being finalized for Bike Week 2016, further information to follow.

SOW week 2016

Well done to all students who scooted to school for SOW (Scoot to school week) 2016. Scooting has become a very popular mode of sustainable travel especially among younger children.
SOW Week saw a number of Smarter Travel Schools taking part in Scoot workshops where they practiced skills such as balance,cornering and braking. Students were also taken through the "L" check which helps to determine if your scooter is scoot ready!

St Patricks Girls

St Patricks Girls

St Brigids

Feb 2016

February has been a busy month for Limerick Smarter Travel Schools, many of whom have been taking part in the Green Schools Big Travel Challenge. Well done to St Brigids who promoted Cycling as their sustainable mode of transport, Salesian Infant school promoted walking and Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh worked on park and stride. A number of workshops were carried out in schools to promote and encourage sustainable travel, including cycling skills workshops and puncture repair classes

St Brigids Cycling Skills Workshop

St Brigids Cycling Skills Workshop

Salesian Infant School WOW week 

Salesian Infant School WOW week

Salesian Infant School WOW week

JFK Memorial School puncture repair workshop

JFK Memorial School puncture repair workshop

A number of schools have signed up to take part in National SOW (Scoot to School Week) taking place Monday 7th to Friday 11th March. We look forward to our Scoot workshops next week and hope to see good numbers travelling to school by scooter especially on scoot to school Wednesday.

January 2016

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that you are all settled back into a new year. A new year, new sustainable travel goals!!!!

We kick off with Green- Schools Ireland BIG TRAVEL Challenge on its way in February.

Green Schools want you to take on the challenge of achieving a measurable increase in one of the following sustainable modes of transport; walking, cycling, scooting, carpooling, park 'n'stride or the bus. They are asking schools to promote their chosen greener mode of travel for any 10 weekday period between Monday 1st February and Monday 29th February 2016 and to record their results.

One of our smarter travel schools St Brigids is promoting cycling to school for the challenge, we know they will do fantastic. If any of our other Limerick Smarter Travel Schools are taking part, let us know what mode you picked and send us some photos. Best of luck to everyone.

An innovative programme from Our Lady Queen of Peace the 'Don't Park Here' is a unique initiative designed to raise awareness about the dangers of double parking at the schools gate. The school linked with a range of groups to create life size figures of school children, these were then placed in 'issue hotspots' to deter poor driver behaviour. This programme is now being replicated by Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh as part of a school project, so hopefully we will soon see more of these life size figures outside our smarter travel schools. (Pictures to follow)