Walking and cycling to Midlothian Schools

Friday 7th August 2020

Midlothian Council has provided this guidance for walking or cycling to school.

Physical Distance Guidance

With so many people walking and cycling during the lockdown phase of the Coronavirus crisis, we are keen to build even more on our pre-crisis great active travel figures! Whilst it may be tempting to travel by car, fresh air and exercise are vital and we want to continue to keep the areas around Midlothian schools as safe as possible.

Please walk or cycle to school if you can; if you do need to travel by car, please park around 5/10 mins away from school and have a short walk in.

Thank you for your anticipated support with this aim.

Guidance and Good Practice

• If your usual route appears busy, is there another route you could use?
• If one side of the street is busy with pedestrians can you cross over safely to use a quieter footpath?
• Remember to stick to Scottish Government guidance and keep a distance between you and other pedestrians/family groups.
• If access to school is crowded, stand back and queue with adequate spacing.
• If cycling, be mindful of pedestrians entering school, dismount bike and queue to enter school grounds.
• If walking and cycling, keep to the left and give priority where indicated by footpath signage.
• At school crossing guides (lollipop) sites please practice physical distancing and give the guide and other pedestrians’ adequate space.
• Please remember to have no physical contact with school crossing guides under any circumstances.
• If using bike or scooter storage in schools, please remember hand hygiene using hand gel or washing your hands after use.
• Remember the importance of hand washing! Wash hands before and after a trip or journey to school.

Summary

In summary, please just use common-sense and keep yourself and your friends and family safe whilst getting this important exercise and fresh air on the way to school, keeping our school gates as safe as possible.

Thank you for your help and enjoy your walk/cycle to school!

If you do have any concerns/ideas that you’d like to share, please contact Gillian.Bathgate@midlothian.gov.uk

Share on Facebook