These data were given at the presentation in Chisinau on September 23 of a new European guide to improve road safety for schoolchildren. The document is called “Guide for the installation of urban equipment and architectural design of roadside areas”.
It is developed in Slovenia based on EU best practices and adapted to local conditions. The guide provides national and local authorities with a set of concrete tools for modernizing roadside areas. The main objective is to reduce vehicle speeds and create a safe and predictable environment for both drivers and pedestrians, especially students.
“This guide is not just a set of rules, but a new vision for how we design public spaces for the most vulnerable road users. It is not enough to simply force drivers to slow down, we need to create infrastructure that makes this behavior intuitive, while helping children use the road to school correctly and safely,” said Nicolai Mîndra, State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development.
The document contains a number of recommendations and practical solutions aimed at reducing traffic risks for children near schools and kindergartens. These measures have already been successfully applied in Slovenia and can be adapted to the realities of Moldova.
“The aim is to attract the attention of drivers on this stretch of road in preparation for braking,” says psychologist and doctor of natural sciences Sibilla Birt. – The road should be designed and equipped to take into account the human factor. Very often schools, traffic lights, crosswalks, bus stops, bike lanes and their transitions to the roadway optically blend into the background. Therefore, they are poorly visible and therefore often not recognized in time.”
Internationally, there have been many attempts to increase drivers’ vigilance and reduce speed when driving near a school or other childcare facility. However, Slovenia’s guide to safer routes to school addresses this topic in the most advanced and innovative way, says the psychologist.
This concept not only proposes a new graphic and spatial design of road markings marking the zone where children are, but is also a pilot project already tested on school routes in the municipality of Žalec in the 2015/2016 school year. The results of speed measurements in the marking zone clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed marking: according to the measurements, the speed of traffic in the relevant locations decreased, and the subsequent survey showed that road users found the marking visible, clear, informative and pleasant.
The paper details technical solutions such as the installation of visible road markings, speed limiters, pedestrian safety islands and smart signs. Special attention is paid to architectural design which, through the use of colors and urban architectural elements, can transform school zones into friendly and safe spaces known as “Zone 30”.
The manual will be distributed to all local authorities and institutions responsible for traffic management and will be a mandatory source of information when planning and modernizing road infrastructure in the vicinity of educational institutions.
