In September 2023, the municipality of Cabriès-Calas set up a pédibus: an 8-stop route through the town so children can walk to school accompanied by municipal employees.
The road network in Cabriès-Calas often reaches gridlock, particularly when children are being dropped off at school. Pédibus was thought up as an answer to this problem. The mayor set up a special commission on children tasked with devising a green solution to the issue of cars carrying only one person and encouraging soft mobility.
With pédibus, parents know that their children can walk to school safely by joining a group from a stop close to home. Children can walk to kindergarten or primary school in a group and parents cut their emissions by not having to drive them.
Pédibus meets several objectives: as well as encouraging children to exercise, it promotes carbon-free modes of travel and causes people to rethink the way they use their car. It also frees up the town's roads, reduces the carbon footprint of school runs and ensures that children are safe as they are accompanied by municipal employees. This initiative teaches children about the problems caused by harmful greenhouse gas emissions and is an incentive for parents to use a form of soft mobility to get to a multimodal hub.
The project also aims to encourage parents to use car-pooling or a bike to travel from home to school and home to work.
