MORE primary school pupils in Devon are walking to school, according to a huge new travel survey released this week.
The percentage of children in Devon walking to their primary school has leapt from 42 per cent to 47 per cent over the past year.
And West Devon was above the county-wide average, with 48 per cent of pupils from the 16 primary schools taking part in the survey walking to school.
The figures have come from the second Great School Travel Tally which was held across the county in September, with a total of 238 primary and secondary schools taking part.
Devon County Council?s school travel plan co-ordinator, Alison McGregor, said: ?This was one of the biggest surveys to be undertaken in our schools on the same day.
?We want to encourage school pupils to walk and cycle more - partly for health reasons.
?Of course there are also concerns about the increase in the number of cars on the road and the relation this has to increased danger and congestion and poorer air quality.?
Mrs McGregor said the survey would allow the council to target resources more effectively in terms of providing improved public transport, pathways and cycle lanes.
Devon?s executive chairman for the Environment, David Morrish, said it was encouraging that even in a rural county like Devon, around 45 per cent of pupils consistently walked to school.
Transport experts at Devon County Council believe the increase in primary pupils walking to school may reflect the increase of initiatives like ?walking buses? like those in Okehampton and Tavistock, where parents and helpers supervise a crocodile of child pedestrians.
An increasing number of schools are also producing their own School Travel Plans setting out safe routes to schools for walkers and cyclists - 30 schools now have travel plans and another 20 are developing them.
Among the works which are being undertaken this year through school travel plans are a subway to Tavistock College, linked to the National Cycle Network, with new cycle storage provision at the college, and a pathway to be built from park to school access road to facilitate a walking bus at South Tawton Primary School.