Results from a travel survey showed almost half of pupils at Wanaka Primary School, Hawea Flat School and Holy Family Catholic School wanted to ride their bikes or scooters to school, but less than a fifth regularly travelled to school on two wheels.
Results from the survey, which is in its sixth year, are used as part of the Queenstown Lake District Council school travel plan.
Plan co-ordinator Kirsty Barr said it was no surprise pupils wanted to cycle or scooter to school, but for many it was not practical because of their age or distance from school.
All three schools had started programmes encouraging active ways to travel to school, including cycle skill lessons and walking buses, she said.
Wanaka was suited to cycling because most of the roads pupils would use were restricted to 50kmh or less, meaning it could be a safe option, Ms Barr said.
Concerns about safety could be one reason parents chose not to let their children cycle, scooter or walk to school.
Projects such as the walking bus and safe pick-up spots had already improved safety for pupils who chose to walk, cycle or scooter, she said.
Information from the survey would be used by the council to help plan future infrastructure concerning school travel, she said.
"If people learn how to safely cycle when they are young and walking or cycling to school becomes a routine, then that carries on when they are older," At Holy Family School, only a quarter of pupils cycled, walked or rode a scooter to school but almost 70% said they wanted to.
Principal Jo McKay said that no specific effort had been made to increase the number pupils cycling to school.
Many pupils lived a considerable distance from school, because it did not have a catchment area, meaning the only options were busing or travelling by car, she said.
Cycling and walking to school were encouraged but the school did not specifically promote them as ways to travel, she said.
As families moved into the new subdivisions near the school, more pupils would cycle or ride their scooters to and from school, she said.
Safety was an issue, but the major concern was vehicles outside the school rather than the roads pupils travelled on, she said.
