A brand new synthetic intelligence (AI) platform developed with help from the Division for Transport is being piloted as a possible resolution to one of many UK’s most entrenched transport challenges: the varsity run.
The proportion of pupils being pushed to highschool in England has risen by 23% since 2005, with 37% now travelling by automobile as an alternative of strolling, biking, or utilizing public transport. On the similar time, the variety of kids strolling to highschool has dropped by round 4%. The morning faculty run now accounts for practically 30% of peak-time visitors in London and is a rising contributor to congestion and emissions throughout the nation.
The STEP platform
The brand new instrument, often called STEP (Faculty Journey Engagement Platform), has been created by the UK-based start-up HomeRun. It makes use of anonymised postcode knowledge, mixed with behavioural, social, and geographical elements, to foretell how pupils journey to highschool. By making use of AI at scale, STEP can reveal the place automobile dependency is highest, which routes are unsafe, and the place funding in strolling, biking, or public transport may have the largest influence.
HomeRun’s goal is to chop the proportion of pupils being pushed to highschool from 37% right now to underneath 10% by 2035 — the equal of eradicating 650 million automobile journeys over the following decade.
Not like conventional faculty journey plans, which require surveys and the cooperation of overstretched headteachers, the platform permits councils and authorities departments to plan interventions at county and even nationwide stage with out the executive burden falling on faculties.
Essex pilot
Essex County Council (ECC) was the primary authority to pilot STEP. With just one officer beforehand liable for 520 faculties throughout the county, ECC was restricted to working with round 35 faculties per 12 months. Utilizing STEP, the council was in a position to mannequin journey patterns for over 210,000 pupils throughout all 520 state faculties.
The ensuing knowledge has been used to underpin a serious funding bid for 30 new Faculty Streets, which prohibit automobile entry throughout drop-off and pick-up instances. If profitable, this could characterize one of many largest Faculty Streets rollouts in England outdoors London.
Helen Akpabio, Energetic Journey Supervisor at ECC, famous that the instrument permits interventions to be primarily based on want slightly than the passion of parent-teacher associations or particular person workers: “For the primary time, all faculties are assessed on a stage enjoying subject. Interventions may be targeted the place they’re most wanted, not simply the place engagement is most responsive”.
Broader implications
The varsity run has lengthy been neglected in nationwide transport methods. With native authorities spending greater than £2 billion yearly on statutory home-to-school transport for SEND college students alone, many councils have scaled again wider faculty transport provision to the naked minimal.
Whereas some city councils have launched Faculty Streets in recent times, these are sometimes concentrated in quieter residential areas. Colleges situated on principal roads or in rural areas have largely missed out. Marketing campaign teams equivalent to Inexperienced Faculty Runs and Remedy the Faculty Run argue that platforms like STEP may assist councils and communities take a extra equitable, evidence-led method.
The significance of tackling the varsity run was recognised on 2 July 2025, when the mayors of England’s Mixed Authorities signed a nationwide pledge to prioritise strolling, wheeling, and biking, with a selected deal with the varsity journey. Nevertheless, campaigners and native authorities warn that with out strong knowledge instruments, councils danger “spending restricted funds blindly”.
Trying forward
HomeRun’s CEO, Pooya Kamvari, mentioned that if the Essex outcomes have been replicated nationally, the UK may see a dramatic shift in class journey habits:
- A discount of 650 million automobile journeys
- Important cuts in congestion and peak-time emissions
- More healthy, extra energetic journey decisions for households
The corporate is asking on the federal government to help councils in adopting a data-led method by:
- Creating a nationwide faculty run technique
- Funding nationwide use of STEP and related instruments
- Incentivising councils to put money into interventions with measurable influence
- Requiring personal and unbiased faculties to take part, reflecting their disproportionate contribution to highschool run visitors
- Supporting new instruments just like the STEP Father or mother Portal to provide households personalised journey options
Campaigners say that after a long time of rising automobile dependency, AI-driven platforms may lastly present the intelligence wanted to reshape probably the most cussed parts of UK transport.
