CASE STUDY
Building STEP > The AI Engine for School Travel Planning
> Summary
HomeRun and Essex County Council partnered through the DfT Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators (via Innovate UK) to build and pilot HomeRun STEP - the UK’s first AI-powered intelligence platform for the school run. In just weeks, STEP modelled ~210,000 pupil journeys across 520+ schools, complementing in-school surveys with county-wide, journey-level evidence that lets Essex target the right schools, make fair funding decisions, and prepare robust bids.
“We built STEP to remove the school-run data blind spot - so councils can spend scarce budgets where change is both needed and achievable."
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> Pooya Kamvari - Founder & CEO, HomeRun
The Problem: no evidence base, no scale
Local authorities lack consistent data on school travel, limiting them to broad one-size-fits-all approaches that are costly, inequitable, and limited in impact. Additionally, without robust evidence, the school run is often excluded from major transport strategies undermining efforts to tackle congestion, carbon, and mobility.
> The idea we tested with Innovate UK
Can we combine our expertise, the behavioural insights gained from 100,000+ UK school journeys collected through our App, and advancements in Machine Learning (AI), to provide deep intelligence on the school run, without the need for costly school engagement?
> How we built STEP
We combined a wide range of datasets and transformed them into a standardised format linked to spatial and geographic areas. Data inputs included:
Geographic
Routes, distances, topography, urban/rural classification
Transport
Public transport frequency, road networks, safe cycling routes, traffic patterns
Behavioural & demographic
Household income,
car ownership, pupil age, journey-sharing behaviours
We created a unique training dataset by adding these factors to our proprietary school journeys database, and used advanced machine learning to identify how these factors shape parental travel choices. This lets STEP:
1 > Predict current travel behaviour at pupil and school level.
2 > Identify realistic alternatives — which sustainable modes are genuinely feasible for each pupil.
Alongside the modelling, we designed an intuitive, visual, and user-friendly platform that makes complex insights clear and actionable.
> School travel data at scale in weeks, not years
Within weeks, STEP produced a county-wide baseline, school-level opportunity profiles, and ranked priorities - the most ambitious school-travel data exercise yet attempted in the UK. STEP revealed in unprecedented detail the extraordinary potential for sustainable school travel across Essex:
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“STEP is so exciting because it gives us the evidence base that we never had before, and that lets us prioritise according to the impact we can deliver with taxpayer funding.”
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> Tracey Vickers, Head of Sustainable Transport, Essex County Council
> The power of data on the School Run
From this strong evidence base, Essex is identifying which interventions, will have the greatest impact and in which locations. The numbers tell the story:
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> Targeting the top 10% of schools by potential impact delivers more than 3× the outcomes compared with a random selection
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> When focusing on decarbonisation, that multiplier rises to nearly 5×.
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> Rural journeys — undercounted and underserved — account for 40%+ of potential benefits
Chart 1: The potential impact of schools by cars off the road, decarbonisation, and active travel increase, ordered by least to most potential for impact.
STEP doesn’t stop at identifying “where” to focus. Once high-potential schools are flagged, the platform allows deep analysis of their travel footprint, pairing problems with solutions:
Chart 3 > Example of a school with high potential for walking, suggesting Interventions: safer crossings, walking infrastructure, walking buses, buddy schemes.
Chart 4 > Example of a school with stronger potential for public transport. Interventions: affordable fares, aligned bus timings, pedestrian access to stations
“STEP allows us to see which schools have the greatest potential for positive impact for both their own community and the people that live near them.”
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> Nick Hill, Sustainable Travel Plan Officer, Essex County Council
From data to delivery > Transforming the School Run
Essex County Council (ECC) have been using the STEP platform for just three months - and it is already reshaping how they approach the complex challenge of the school run.
1 > Smarter prioritisation of resources
ECC are targeting resources and business-as-usual activities where the impact will be greatest. This includes identifying which schools to prioritise for school travel planning support, and which are best suited for initiatives such as Living Streets’ Walk to School campaigns and the WOW tracker. For the first time, ECC can assess all schools as eligible at the initial phase, creating a level playing field and ensuring resources are distributed fairly.​​
2 > Building evidence-based business cases
ECC have submitted their first-ever bid for 30 school streets (from a standing start of zero), underpinned by STEP data which provided robust evidence in place of anecdotal assumptions. ECC have applied for National Lottery funding - a previously untapped source - showing how robust data unlocks new opportunities for investment.
3 > Elevating the school run in strategic planning
STEP’s clear, accessible visualisations have helped ECC engage their wider transport and planning teams, embedding school travel into core strategies such as LCWIPs, Local Transport Plans, and Transport Assessments for major housing projects.
> Why this matters beyond Essex
Essex already had stronger resourcing and capability than most local authorities (ATE capability rating 2). And yet, they still faced the same challenges outlined above. These are not unique to Essex: they are shared by all UK local authorities.
Through STEP, we’re modelling the 8+ million pupil journeys that take place across the UK every single school day. Our mission is clear: to transform the school run at scale, powered by data and capability building.
“STEP gives us the evidence base we need to integrate school journeys into wider transport plans… it’s a game-changer for joined-up, evidence-led infrastructure planning.”
> James Williams, Associate Director, SLR Consulting
> Unlocking new possibilities
The opportunities ahead are vast - just a few examples we are considering:
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AI-powered
school run assistant
Guiding parents towards the most sustainable travel options, while also gathering real insights into the barriers families face
Automating school travel planning
Cutting up to 90% of manual workload, saving the equivalent of hundreds of teachers’ time each year.
Integrating wider transport planning
Using STEP insights to link school-run changes with broader infrastructure and land-use planning.
“If the trends we’ve seen in Essex were scaled nationally, we could ramp up active travel on the school run, take 650 million car trips off the road, slash peak-traffic emissions, and reshape communities around healthier, active, more sustainable transport. That’s the power of using data and AI ethically, turning good intentions into real-world impact.”
> Pooya Kamvari - Founder & CEO, HomeRun
> What we need
To achieve this, we need the public sector - from DfT and ATE to every local authority - to embrace innovation. The last 20 years of “business as usual” approaches won’t solve the challenges ahead.
We’re here to collaborate: with central and local government, community groups, national delivery partners, transport operators, and beyond. Together, we can seize this moment and finally give the school run the serious, evidence-led solutions it deserves.
