According to the 2019 Police Headquarters data, 41 children aged 0-6 and 727 kids aged 7-14 were hit by a car. Car traffic is often a threat for children playing by schools or on access roads to it. We will try to prevent it in Warsaw, as this is where we actively work on a daily basis and observe slow and insufficient changes in the field of pedestrian safety and alternatives to car traffic.
We will start from engaging citizens in a debate on children in the city, their needs and rights related to safety, inviting parents, children, school representatives and city officials.
Then we will recruit 5 schools willing to participate in the project, will initiate project groups that will work on prototypes of changes to school surroundings. We will run workshops on project designing, on mediation techniques, and on how to talk to local communities. We will select one project that we will implement in the form of a pilot – first we will consult it with people living by a given street located by a school, and then we will conduct an evaluation study. Based on these activities we will design a cooperation and good practice model for ‘school streets’. We will run a social campaign on various types of transport and their environmental impact. We will also talk to city authorities about a permanent change of school streets to make them safer.
Our first partner is the Wzornictwo i Ład foundation that will support us with its knowledge about friendly designing of public spaces. Our second partner is Warszawski Alarm Smogowy that will help us promote the initiative thanks to its wide reach among grassroots movements for cleaner air.
