Exploring how traffic restriction schemes outside schools influence the school journey: a qualitative analysis of mechanisms and contextual factors

Background: Active travel to and from schools offers important health and environmental benefits, yet car use remains dominant, contributing to congestion, pollution and safety risks. Schemes to restrict private motor vehicles are increasingly being implemented around schools to address these issues, but evidence on how they might work to impact the school journey across different contexts is limited. Aims and Objectives: To explore the mechanisms through which schemes might influence school travel behaviour and how the impacts vary across different contexts. Methods In-person walk-along and online interviews were conducted with 24 families, five teachers and four local authority representatives across three regions (Perth and Kinross, Haringey and Sheffield) across the United Kingdom between September 2024 and April 2025. Ethnographic observations were also carried out. Transcripts were analysed drawing on Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis, guided by realist evaluation principles and ethnographic observations to identify contexts, mechanisms and outcomes using NVivo. Results: Common context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations were identified reflecting congruent narratives across participants. For example, In contexts where families previously relied on driving for the school journey (Context), increased inconvenience functioned as a mechanism (Mechanism), encouraging a shift towards hybrid journeys and or a full shift to active travel (Outcome). CMOs were broadly captured by two themes: i) considering change and adapting routines: how families responded to schemes, and ii) navigating challenges and building momentum: how schemes evolved in practice. Participants highlighted the potential for schemes to promote active travel to school, improving experiences of the journey and their health, while also noting unintended consequences such as displaced traffic, pushback from some community members and challenges for families with specific access needs. These experiences showed how supportive infrastructure, meaningful consultation and framing around children’s health and safety shape the impact and acceptability of the schemes. Conclusion: The capacity for schemes to promote healthier and more sustainable school travel, while also generating unintended consequences, suggests that effective implementation requires supportive infrastructure, sustained community engagement and alignment with broader policy priorities. Keywords: active travel; school journey; traffic restriction schemes; school streets; qualitative research; public health