June 2015

June was a bumper month for the schools programme where we celebrated National Bike Week which is celebrated in Limerick via the Limerick Smarter Travel BeSpoke Cycling Festival. Some of the wonderful events undertaken in schools throughout the month of June are outlined below. Please visit our Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme  Flickr Gallery for further images and stories from National Bike Week 2015.

National Bike Week 2015
National Bike Week is a key event in the Limerick Smarter Travel calendar where we organise a range of activities to promote cycling across workplaces, communities and schools. Limerick was a hive of cycling activity and this is thanks to the wonderful students and teachers working on the ground.

Mary Queen of Ireland kicked off the schools bike week with a major bike fixing workshop with 3rd-6th class students. Students were invited to learn the various parts of the bicycle, how to conduct minor fixes and which tools to use. Over 90 students participated in the event on Friday June 12th. 

School Travel exhibition in Limerick City Library (June 12th -25th). This exhibition was comprised of entries from our 'Travel Smart' competition  which was launched in May 2015. 

The Gleeson family were out in force at the BeSpoke Bike Expo on June 13th 2015. The Limerick Smarter Travel Bike Expo was held on Bedford Row and was designed to showcase cycling related work underway across the city. Visit www.limericksmartertravel.ie for more details. 

St. Brigids National School, Singland held their 2nd annual LST school bike fixing event in association with Halfords (Ballysimon) on June 16th 2015. Over 60 bicycles were seen to!!

Over 480 students from study area schools cycled on June 18th ( National Cycle to School Day 2015)

The 3rd annual Golden Bike Award was won by St.Brigids  NS, Singland for the third year in a row!. An average of 130 students cycled to school for each day of National Bike Week 2015! Well done

Other School Events

Scooter Training 

Bicycles didn't get all of the attention this month. Several schools took part in our new scooter training workshop as part of their school  travel action plan. Scooter training is one of our flagship workshops which is gaining popularity across the hubs. The aim of this workshop is to raise awareness about the use of scooters as a mode of transport and to deliver safety messages for scooting to school. On June 22nd the schools programme officers visited An Modhscoil to complete training with three 3rd class groups. We had an absolutely brilliant morning! Thank you An Modhscoil! 

An  Modhscoil,O'Connell Avenue, Scooter Training Workshop (June 22nd)

Walk or Cycle Road Signs 
Two new sets of 'walk or cycle' signs were erected outside St.Brigids NS and Sexton Street as June drew to a close. These road signs were designed in 2011 to raise awareness about students walking or cycling in the area and are granted to schools that make an exceptional effort to promote sustainable travel in their school. There are now six sets of signs in place in school districts across the city with more due to be installed in the coming few months. Thank you Rory from Limerick City Council for your continued support of the schools programme. 

New Walk or Cycle Sign on Sexton Street (June 2015)

This is just a snapshot of the various events that took place during the month of June. Limerick Smarter Travel would like to express our gratitude to the teachers and students of Limerick City & Castletroy and we wish you all a fantastic summer break!! 

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

May 2015

School Car Free Day 2015
School Car Free Day was launched this month as part of Limericks participation in National Walk to School Week. This event invited schools across the study area to 'ditch the car' and try an alternative means of getting to school. This event was designed to be all inclusive and enable secondary and primary schools across the study area to try and work together to reduce the impact of traffic outside the school gate. The event was a huge success where over 2,300 students from across the study area walked, scooted, cycled or took the bus!! Images from this event are available from our school car free day gallery

Laurel Hill Colaiste,South Circular Road on School Car Free Day 2015

These two Ardscoil Ris (North Circular Road) students cycled >11km on School Car Free Day!!! WOW!

Our Lady of Lourdes (Southside) had NO cars on School Car Free Day 2015!!!!!!!

Caitriona & Aisling (Travel Coordinators) who coordinated School Car Free Day in Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh

Please visit our  school car free day gallery for more stories and images from the day

Well Done Limerick!

Travel Smart Art Competition
Limerick Smarter Travel is accepting entries to our first 'Travel Smart' Art competition which was launched as part of National Walk to School Week. Please visit our website for further details

Travel Smart Competition 2015

Walk Smart Pilot
A new resource, developed specifically for the schools programme is now being piloted in two study area schools. 'Walk Smart' is an activity which invites students to virtually navigate their local area on a tailored map made specifically for their school. To participate, each student receives a passport where the are awarded points for each day they walk, cycle or Park & Stride to school. At the end of the week they the class calculate their totals and then estimate how far they traveled on their virtual 'map'. Further details on this initiative are available from our website.  

'Walk Smart ' Salesian Primary 

Example of a tailored 'walksmart' map where each dot represents a set distance and number of points

Secondary School Action Projects

Secondary school action projects in Ardscoil Ris and Clements went full steam ahead this month. Five groups of 2nd years from Ardscoil Ris took on sustainable travel as their CSPE Action Project for their junior cert. Each group worked diligently to promote different modes ahead of School Car Free Day. One of the cycling groups invited Halfords & Limerick Smarter Travel to teach them about bicycle safety and maintenance. They then arranged to teach 1st year students about bike maintenance as part of their action day event. Another group took on bus transport and created a detailed map of the local area to highlight public transport networks servicing the school. 

Ardscoil Ris 2nd Year students invited Limerick Smarter Travel & Halfords to teach them about bike mainteannce and safety on May 12th. They then used this information to deliver peer to peer training on May 13th with 1st years

2nd year students from Ardscoil Ris training in 1st year groups in basic bike maintenance as part of their CSPE Project

Ardscoil Ris Bus Action  Project 

Clements Secondary School on the South Circular Road had a busy few weeks where they completed two action projects to promote sustainable travel. Their first project, led by Thomas Giltenane focused on infrastructure where the groups identified key routes to school using actual student distributions and then audited them to determine barriers to sustainable travel. This formed part of their Junior Certificate CSPE project and came to fruition in early May. Sinead Crowes group took on School Car Free day as their action project and focused their attention on promoting the event across the school. Clements came up trumps on School Car Free day where even the staff made the extra effort to participate. Well done boys!! looking forward to working with you again next year,

St. Clements 'Carpool Selfie' from  Staff who made the extra effort to carpool on School Car Free Day

School Car Free Day Team in St. Clements Secondary

Scoot Safe Training Galvone NS
The schools programme had a fantastic morning in Galvone NS with 1st/2nd class students delivering the scoot safe training workshop. Since initiative conception over 700 students across the city have received scoot safe training. This school is set to merge with Southill Junior School in September to form 'Le Cheile' where they hope to get more involved in the programme. 

Galvone NS Scoot Safe

Scooting for Adults!!
Calling all adults....Would you like to feel ten again? Why not try adult scooting? Following on from all of our scoot safe workshops with students we have decided to get in on the action and try it out ourselves and what a result! As a mode of transport it couldn't be simpler.... 

Reasons to try 'Adult Scooting'

• It is light, easy to use
• It gets you places faster than walking (and in many cases driving)
• If you need to stop somewhere you don't need to find parking as it is easy to fold up and carry.
• You may have heard of  'Park & Stride' so how about  'Park & Scoot'....why not...live a little....:) 
• Scooting makes you feel young again 
• Adult scooting would give teachers some serious street cred with students :)
• Guaranteed you will arrive at your destination in great humour:)

                                                                            We absolutely LOVE it!

Why not try adult scooting! #notjustforkids! 

Breaking NEWS !! 

Bike Week is COMING!! 

National Bike Week 2015 - We are excited to announce that Limericks 3rd Annual BeSpoke Cycling Festival will take place from June 12th - 21st 2015 as part of National Bike Week 2015. Throughout this week there will be bike expos, bike parades, bike fixing events and much much more!! Please visit our social media for updates on events across the city for this years event. 

Is your bicycle ready?

• National C.O.W. Day will take place on June 18th 2015. National COW day  invites students from schools across the country to cycle to school if they can. Letters will be forwarded to your school in early June. 

• Travel Smart Exhibition 2015 - Entries to our Travel Smart competition will be displayed in the granary as part of a travel exhibition to be held from June 13th - 26th. Further details are available here 

• Miniature Bicycle Competition - The schools programme is linking with Limerick City & County Council (Environment Section) to run its 2nd Miniature Bicycle Competition. This fun competition invites students to create their own miniature bike models out of recycled material to be in with a chance to win a 50euro voucher. Please visit our school travel gallery to see last years entries

• The schools team is also offering free bicycle maintenance workshops and bike fun days to schools across the study area.  If your school is interested in participating in these events please contact us via lstschoolproject@gmail.com 

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website 

www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

December 2014

School Travel Mapping 

Galvone NS and Scoil Iosagain explored the concept of travel planning this month where students worked with large local area maps to identify sustainable travel options for their school. As part of this workshop students were invited to colour code routes, identify key bus stops and discuss travel options for their school. The primary aim of this workshop is to introduce the concept of travel planning for school journeys and raise awareness about local services in their immediate environment. 

School Travel Planning Workshop in CBS Primary/Scoil Iosagain

Our Lady Queen of Peace scoop top RSA Award 2014

We are delighted to announce that Our Lady Queen of Peace was awarded the RSA Leading Light award in the Primary School Category 2014 for their work to promote road safety outside the school gate. This innovative project was initiated as part of their work to promote safe sustainable travel in partnership with Green-Schools Travel and the Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme. This school was awarded on the 10th December and was the first primary school in Limerick to receive the award. Well done Our Lady Queen of Peace!! Further details on their project are available from the school website.

RSA Leading Light  Winners  - Our Lady Queen of Peace

St. Michaels Infant Schools Xmas WOW Launch
St. Michaels Infant School (Sexton St.) launched their Walk on Wednesday Initiative on December 9th 2015. As part of their work to promote travel to this young age group the school travel coordinator created monitoring charts on the doors of each classroom so students can place their name card beside the mode they used to get to school (see below). This is a fantastic way to communicate monitoring in infant schools. The event was a huge success and surveys indicated that over 55% traveled 'smart' to school up 16% from the norm'! Well done St. Michaels Infant School!.

Example of a travel monitoring chart in St. Michaels Infant School

Coke Zero Bike Launch
Limericks Bike Rental Scheme was launched this month across the city the Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan TD. This is an exciting development for our city which we hope will support our efforts to promote cycling across the city. A total of 23 bike rental stations have been installed at various locations across the city. Further details on the launch are available here. If you would like to learn more about how to avail of this scheme please visit www.bikeshare.ie/

New Bike Rental Scheme Limerick

The Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. We will look forward to working with you again in 2015

If you have any stories you would like to add to our news blog please email lstschoolproject@gmail.com

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

June 2013

June was an absolutely BRILLIANT month across the study area. National Bike Week took place between 15-22nd June and many new exciting events were piloted across the study area.Here are the updates:

Launch of Limericks inaugural BeSpoke Cycling Festival
This month Limerick Smarter Travel launched Limericks inaugural bicycle festival as part of Bike Week on June 14th. This festival was entitled ‘BeSpoke’ and is to become an annual event in the city. An expo was also held in the city centre to raise awareness about the Limerick Smarter Travel project. As part of this there was a display of work generated from the school project. In total, over 10,000 people visited this expo throughout the week. 

BeSpoke Cycling Expo 2013 

National Cycle to School Day 2013

St. Brigids NS, Singland launched their first ever Cycle On Wednesday on June 19th 2013 as part of their list of Bike Week Activities. On the day over 179 students (36%) cycled to school from all year standards. Students who made the effort to cycle were rewarded with a hi-viz bag cover courtesy of the RSA. This event generated an enormous amount of positivity in the school community and has paved the way for the long – term implementation of this initiative. Well done to Linda O Reilly for all of her work to promote cycling in St.Brigids NS

179 cycled to school in St.Brigids NS! Limericks best COW day to date

Bling your Bike!

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh is also part of the schools programme pilot from the Castletroy Super Hub. As part of their National Bike Week activities they held a major ‘Bling your Bike’ and ‘Bling your hi-viz’ competition. This was quite the spectacle in the school where over 45 students cycled to school and of these 35 binged their bikes

Bling your bike parade in Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh June 2013

 More news from June 2013 will be uploaded shortly

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

Introducing the School Travel News Blog

The Limerick Smarter Travel School Project is an exciting new project currently underway in Limerick City where we will be actively working with schools to promote alternative travel modes for school journeys. This project is being delivered in partnership with An Taisces Green-Schools Travel Programme and forms part of the Limerick Smarter Travel behaviour change programme. 

It is important to keep everyone up to date on news and events related to the schools programme. In an effort to reduce paper use we are transferring our news updates to this online blog format. This replaces our previous newsletter (see below) and will hopefully keep everyone informed about school travel projects across the study area. 

Newsletters for Schools

To support schools in the informing & involving aspect of the schools programme we have compiled a template newsletter specifically for participating schools. This template enables you to create your own simple newsletters for distribution among your school community or as online versions for your schools website. Please visit our website for access to this template or click on the links on the right side bar of this blog.

Newsletter Template for Schools

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel