Three Bardon primary schools have joined Brisbane’s Active School Travel program in successive years, expanding local efforts to encourage alternatives to private car trips to school. Rainworth State School joined the initiative in 2024, followed by Bardon State School in 2025 and St Joseph’s School Bardon in 2026.
Bardon is the only suburb represented by three schools on Brisbane’s current Active School Travel list, entering the program in successive years from 2024 to 2026.
The Council scheme provides participating schools with tailored travel maps, bike and scooter skills training, survey templates and weekly Active Travel Day resources designed to encourage walking, cycling, scooting, public transport and car pooling.
Survey Highlights Gap Between Preference and Reality
A community survey conducted from September 2022 to April 2023 included responses from 166 Rainworth State School parents. More than half of respondents — 52.4 per cent — reported that their children were most often driven to school, compared with 43.4 per cent who walked, 3.6 per cent who cycled or scooted and 0.6 per cent who used public transport.
Parent preferences, however, leaned strongly towards active options. Nearly 78 per cent said they would prefer their children to walk, while 14.5 per cent favoured cycling or scooting. Only 7.8 per cent preferred driving.
Safer footpaths and pedestrian crossings emerged as the most frequently selected improvement. Ninety-two per cent of surveyed Rainworth parents said those changes would make them more likely to allow their children to walk, cycle, scoot or catch the bus.
Major Roads Shaped School Travel Choices
Travel habits varied according to where families lived and whether their school journey required crossing the Bardon roundabout or MetRoad 5. Among Section 1 respondents, who the survey report said had to cross MetRoad 5 or the roundabout to reach the school, 72.1 per cent reported driving and 25.6 per cent reported walking.
Survey respondents also identified crossings and pedestrian areas along Boundary Road, Rainworth Road, Rouen Road and Frederick Street among locations of concern. Proposals in the survey report included wider footpaths and new or safer pedestrian crossings around the Bardon roundabout and surrounding roads.
Schools Promote Alternatives to Direct Car Trips
Bardon State School’s travel information promotes Park and Stride and identifies Bowman Park as a location where families can park before completing part of the school journey on foot.
An Active School Travel map and guidance linked by the school shows suggested routes, crossings and pedestrian refuges around Bowman Park, Bardon State School and nearby St Joseph’s.
St Joseph’s participation is still in its first year, making it too early to assess any longer-term change in how families travel to school.
Published 15-Sept-2026