Road safety education in South Australia is currently offered as part of a program that comprehensively addresses safer roads and crossings and safer road user behaviours around primary schools.

The Safe Routes to School program began in South Australia in 1998 and continues to be implemented across the state. In mid 2008 almost 200 primary schools are part of the Safe Routes to School Program.

The department is developing a new teaching resource for schools that will be launched in 2009. This resource will combine ideas from DTEI's two existing resources - TravelsmartSA and Road Ready and provide primary schools with best practice teaching activities in road safety and the benefits to the environment and individuals of active travel.

To coincide with this release, DTEI will be trialling new ways of engaging with schools communities to develop school travel plans. These plans will be tailored to individual school's needs and will explore ideas and strategies to reduce the use of the car for school travel as well as promoting the benefits of children walking and cycling to school.

Green Travel Challenge

The Green Travel Challenge is a program designed to engage Primary School students (and their families) to reflect upon the impact that driving the family car has on the environment.  Either by engaging a selected class or with whole school involvement it targets a week where families substitute journeys made by the car with walking, cycling, public transport and/or car-pooling. From there the total numbers of kilometres saved in the week are tallied and the amount of carbons emissions saved per kilogram is calculated.

Walking School Bus

A Walking School Bus is a group of primary school children who walk to and from school along a safe and enjoyable set route. They are accompanied by a minimum of two parent driver/conductor per 'bus'. One parent 'drives' at the front of the bus, while the other parent ‘conducts’ at the rear. Additional adults may be needed depending on the local requirements. The walking bus picks up 'passengers' along the way at designated 'bus stops' .