Our proposal covers the following target groups and areas.
First of all, it is important to determine the children’s ways of moving to school, in perspective, this would also allow to assess the trends of change.
Secondly, it is inevitable to learn about and collect information from the commuters themselves, in this context, what kind of dangers do children feel when they go to school (with any mode of transportation) and to what extent do they lead to behavioral changes that can increase the risk of a traffic accident?
The third target group is those people whose activities are related to traffic management, including ensuring safety. However, since their knowledge, experience and practice are often quite different, it would be important for them to have a universal set of tools that would allow the safety of solutions to be assessed as objectively as possible.
And what is most important, the evaluations of the last mentioned two target groups can then be compared, which shows whether the solutions offered by adults are comprehensible and comprehensible to children as well? in other words – do the planned measures really work, bringing about the expected safer behavior and thus also a decrease in risk?
Mobile mapping application for dangerous places on the school road
Target groups: pupils, teachers, parents, also local authorities and specialists of planning.
Children’s daily commuting is mainly related to going to school. Traffic accidents involving children. Take more often place in the surroundings where the child realizes his active activities, in particular around home and school, but a large part of children’s extracurricular activities also take place in schools nearby.
Over the past 20 years, there have been major changes in terms how children go to school. The number of children who are taken to school by car has increased significantly, but the use of public vehicles by students is still very important. At the same time falls going to school often coincides with heavy rush hour traffic. Children can choose the mode of travel on their way to school.
The travel modes of children are choosing from are different and the choice is influenced by the location of home and school, the distance of path to school and the possibilities of travel modes to choose from. According to health, travel modes are divided into two, active and passive. Active travel modes are mainly walking and riding a bike, while passive one is choosing a car ride. Accidents with children are taking more often place around school and home. That is why it is very important to create a safe environment around school. It is very important that the students themselves and their parents notice the dangers on the way to school. Mapping the path to school makes children to think about risks, notice them in traffic and talk about it. The collected data can be used and analyzed by pupils, teachers, parents, also local authorities and specialists for planning more safe paths to school and creating a mobility plan for schools.
It is extremely important to note that the information collected directly from the users about the traffic risks perceived by them when going to school is extremely important, at the same time, such a tool with which the information is collected must also take into account the specifics of the target groups (for example, children).
Toolkit for traffic safety assessment of Infrastructure around schools
Target groups: local authorities and specialists for planning
As the schooldays start in the morning and end in the evening, the school area becomes a place where the paths of different type of road users cross. This makes the traffic safety around schools a concern. The increased number of motorized vehicles and outdated infrastructure enhances road safety risks for child pedestrians and cyclists (active transport users), because regardless which transport mode is mainly used, the last mile of commuting to school is made as a vulnerable road user. Since the traffic environment has an effect on the behaviour of road users, it is important to focus on the road infrastructure. In addition, different studies and school mobility plans have been conducted in include the road safety aspect, but no methodological guidelines or toolkits for a similar assessment that would allow to compare the traffic safety around different schools.
Accordingly, the aim is to create a toolkit for traffic safety assessment of infrastructure around schools, which helps to classify the schools based on road safety.
The toolkit for traffic safety assessment of infrastructure around schools, which can be used in different traffic environments and is rather userfriendly and simple. The elements were divided into three groups: the first one contains general characteristics of the school, the second one focuses on the infrastructure parameters in the public traffic environment and the third part includes the characteristics of the school territory. The public traffic environment implies to the characteristics of the road infrastructure, which occur on the road in front of the school (in the contact-area directly adjacent to the school, where the main entrance is located). As the aim was to assess the road safety of the infrastructure, the general characteristics of the school were not taken into account in the assessment system.
Smart Tools for a Safe Way to School estimation
Sustainable mobility planning, which is a modern urban and regional planning method, that allows municipality officials and citizens to gain an overview of problems related to the specific location or settlement. Sustainable mobility planning allows to set time related measurable goals for the solutions, together with stakeholder participation and responsibility.