As the new school year commenced, so did the trial of a school street scheme on La Vieille Rue – the popular two-way shortcut off Oatlands Village.
The lane will be closed to traffic on weekdays from 8am to 8.30am and 3pm to 3.30pm – except for those who are cycling, emergency vehicles, and for residential use, to promote the use of alternative transport for pupils.
St Sampson’s is the first local secondary school to trial a school street, following St Martin’s and La Houguette schools, where such streets are already in place.
‘In terms of wellbeing, safety and exercise for our young people, I think it’s an excellent idea,’ said St Sampson’s High principal Vicky Godley.
‘I’ve just been up on the road and lots of our students are already using it, it was really quite busy. It has to be positive for our young people getting a good start to the day. We want to support our students feeling the best they can first thing in the morning.’
It seemed the new Year 11s were also enthusiastic about the initiative.
‘I’ve walked that route every day since year 7,’ said 15-year-old Xavier Gibson.
‘I used it today and it was noticeably quieter without the cars, which was nice. I often had to duck into driveways. There were actually a lot more people walking than usual.’
His classmate Joe Prince said he has also used the route.
‘I think its really good to encourage more exercise,’ he said.
‘It has really tight bends which can be unsafe if there’s massive vehicles going down, so this is much safer.’
Traffic & Highway Services said the first stage was a feasibility trial.
‘But I think it’s a perfect solution,’ said road safety officer Paul James. ‘It’s low impact for the community, but very high impact for the school.
‘When I’ve done traffic counts on La Vieille Rue, about 50% of the volume of people are using it for active travel – it’s a very low volume of traffic. So to displace that traffic onto a road that is more suitable and keep a road which is less suitable for traffic, but more suitable for active travel makes perfect sense.
‘It makes very little difference to the cars’ journey time – it may actually save them time, because they’re not squeezing past each other.’
St Sampson’s constable Joe Abbotts said he hoped it might lead to further road safety measures throughout the parish, suggesting that some roads might benefit from the introduction of a one-way system, but Mr James cautioned otherwise.
‘One-ways aren’t always the best solution,’ said Mr James.
‘Whether it’s conscious or not, drivers end up going faster down a one-way because they know they’re clear.
‘That can put pedestrians and cyclists in greater danger.’
The trial will conclude at half-term.
15-year-old Olivia Whitmore said she was proud to be part of the first secondary school to implement the scheme.
‘I think it will inspire positive change for the rest of the island,’ she said, ‘so we can all get to school happy and healthy.’
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