2003 Winner

Jean Wilkinson

Jean Wilkinson was awarded the Laurie Bunn Road Safety Award to recognise her outstanding achievements with regard to walking buses in Bromley.  At the time of the award Jean had established 20 walking bus routes at 16 schools, with 248 children regularly participating in the scheme on a daily basis. Getting people out of their cars and onto their feet is no small task in  Bromley, London’s largest Borough, which has one of the highest car ownership rates in the country.

A Walking Bus CD-ROM was also developed by Jean, as part of a promotional campaign to increase the number of walking bus routes in Bromley. This multimedia resource for local schools shows the features, benefits and operating guidelines for a walking bus in order to encourage local schools to adopt the scheme. The CD-ROM is informative yet fun and contains items that may be used in the classroom, as well as substantial information to assist parents and children.

Jean has taken on specialist promotional staff and other tools, to promote the basics of the walking bus. In this way Jean hoped to increase number of routes and participating children whilst still working within fairly constrained budget constraints. Jean’s strategy was to encourage a large number of people to make small changes in their travel behaviour. These many small steps collectively make a large step change that has a significant impact.

Jean calculated that the distance of car journeys saved per week as a result of the walking buses in Bromley equates to 31,647 kilometres per year with a corresponding reduction in air pollution, calculated at 5,379,956 grams in CO2 emissions cut per year (based on figures produced by Energy Saving Trust).

 Presentation of the award was made to Jean Wilkinson in the Livery Hall, Guildhall, City of London Corporation

on Wednesday 30th July 2003