Walk to School Conference: Phillip Mulligan

Traffic Noise, Noise Action Week and the Walk to School
Phillip Mulligan, Environmental Protection UK

The link between walking to school and noise is perhaps not the most obvious one, so I wanted Phillip to speak and help our delegates make the links for this year's Walk to School week.

For Walk to School week we will be working closely with our colleagues at Environmental Protection UK, as it is also Noise Action Week, and we are promoting the links between noise and walking.

After a brief introduction to Environmental Protection UK (formerly NSCA) and Noise Action Week, Phillip went into the details of the noise agenda in the UK at the moment.

Noise pollution is increasing, and affecting the quality of life of more people than ever before. There is now EU legislation to tackle noise and, in particular, by July there are 20 or so conurbations across the UK that are expected to have action plans for tackling transport noise.

Phillip had some good points about noise on our streets - and particularly how the noise in schools and cities is higher than the the WHO recommendations. Perhaps surprisingly, his figures showed that walking or cycling by the road was one of the quietest modes of transport - on the noise within a car, and well behind the noise of motorbikes, trains and the underground.

He also made some interesting points about the health impacts of noise - and particularly that children exposed to lots of noise can feel helpless to control their environment. I had read this piece of research, and it also suggested that they give up on difficult tasks more easily - so they become "used" and "more accepting" of feeling helpless.

His session left me really looking forward to Walk to School week, and our "Sound Detectives" theme. I am sure that my new colleague Louise will do a great job of making children more aware of their aural environment.