About

About RideScore Active Schools

RideScore is an incentive-based program aimed at increasing active travel to and from school. The digital platform utilises beacons that provide notifications to parents on the arrival and departure of students riding and scooting to and from school. Individual trips are recorded and rewarded at certain milestones.

RideScore uses fun characters and gamification to engage students in bike education and road safety.

Why RideScore?

Riding to school is an easy way to help children to be more physically active. Physical activity is essential to children’s health and wellbeing, and there is strong evidence that it can improve academic performance. More students riding/scooting means less vehicles in our school zones, reducing traffic and parking congestion and making our local streets safer for everyone. 

How does it work?

Participating students receive a personal sensor (beacon) that is attached to their bicycle or scooter. The school bicycle storage facility is fitted with a Bluetooth reader that detects the signal from the sensor, and immediately sends a notification to the nominated contact that the student has arrived at, or departed the school gate. Data is collected by the online platform, so that incentives can be offered at certain milestones.

Background

RideScore was created to help parents feel more confident about their children travelling actively to school. It was designed to remove one of the major safety barriers for parents by providing a tool that confirms their child has arrived safely at school.

The first trial took place at Caloundra Primary School in 2017. It set out to encourage more students to ride or scoot to school on their own, while also helping to reduce car use and traffic congestion around the school zone.

In 2021, with support from external grant funding and in partnership with WeRide Australia, the program expanded from a small trial to a full pilot across nine schools.

In 2026, the program will grow again, expanding to fourteen schools. Council intends to continue expanding the program by adding an average of two schools each year that meet the selection criteria.

Vision

The program's vision is to deliver a high quality, reliable active school travel program that addresses barriers to safe school travel and enables parents to reduce car dependency and encourages students to ride and scoot to school more often.

Benefits of RideScore