The basic aims of this program it is TO THINK about some key elements relative to road safety and sustainable mobility, and TO ACT to implement an initiative of awareness in the school and the community.
The ideas
The basic aims of this program it is TO THINK, to think about some key elements relative to road safety and sustainable mobility in the immediate environment of the school and / or in the community; and TO ACT, to implement an initiative of awareness in the school and / or in the community. Our principal idea from which all the actions derive is that the pupils would investigate safety in mobility and propose concrete actions to solve the problems.
We began with an explanation of the project and developing awareness amongst the students. Later we had a chat on road safety with Fernando Castro, a city police officer who also has taken part with us in this road security project. Some days later we had a shower of ideas in each class in order for the pupils to decide what they were going to do for their fieldwork; they gathered in groups in the zones nearest to their houses so that the search they needed to make would be the most practical and effective possible. Later we divided the class in investigative groups in order that they could cross through the zones and observe the architectural barriers and the less secure areas that could be fixed or improved by the town hall. Once the fieldwork was finished, we made a summary of the information and the photos which demonstrated the problems and put them together to share with our classmates.
To know the opinions of the parents, the pupils created a few surveys for the parents to take. The surveys demonstrated that the parents were very satisfied with the results of our work.
The initiatives
We gave chats on the use of the bicycles and road safety using material of the DGT (Transit Department).
On April 21st, we made a field trip to the town hall to take part in popular games meant to claim the public use of the streets as places of enjoyment for children. After the activities we met with members of the municipality.
Because of weather conditions, we had to postpone the outdoor bicycle activity with all the students that we had planned for May 12th. The outing was meant to demonstrate the proper use of this vehicle and promote it as one of the most ecological and beneficial alternatives for the health of the pupils and for the local environment. We plan to work together accompanied by the city police and, equipped with reflective jackets, to make a tour of the town so that everyone who sees us will reclaim the need for more bicycle paths that we can all use in order to move around more safety.
For the month of June, we have prepared the production of an informative campaign creating awareness posters (from art class) using the results from the photo presentations of the problems and of solutions, in order that everyone can see the great social and educational labor realized by our pupils.
On May 5th, we went to a meeting with the mayor to present our offer of improvements according to the observations and analysis we made and contrast of the information. The offers of improvement were:
- police control reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h
- raised zebra crossing in the center of the town
- and more in front of the colleges
- more kilometers of bicycle paths
- trees on both sides of the zebra crossings.
Authenticity and genuine participation of the pupils have been key in order for our initiatives to be successful, and since last year there have been bicycle lanes, a change of direction in some streets and paths on the sidewalks.
