16 December 2004
FIRST SCHOOL SAFETY ZONE FOR NORTHWEST LAUNCHED
The Department for Regional Development’s Roads Service, today launched the first School Safety Zone in Londonderry, at St Brigid's College, Glengallaigh Road.
A School Safety Zone is the area around the school which is specially designed to highlight its location and provide a safer environment, through road improvements and traffic calming measures, for the pupils.
The Safer Routes to School initiative involves improvements to the public road, such as traffic calming measures, as well as work inside the school grounds to provide cycle paths and shelters, lockers as well as bus turning circles.
John Spellar, MP, Minister with responsibility for the Department for Regional Development, said: "The Safer Routes to School initiative was driven by the Northern Ireland School Travel Advisory Group. The programme assesses how we in Northern Ireland, might reduce the impact of the 'school run,’ which accounts for nearly 20% of the traffic on the road at 8.50am each morning. This initiative encourages children and young people who want to walk, cycle or use public transport on the journey, to and from school."
Dr Andrew Murray, Divisional Roads Manager, who switched on the lights on the School Safety Zone sign, congratulated St Brigid’s, which was one of the first, of six schools, involved in Safer Routes to Schools, to develop a School Travel Plan.
Dr Murray said: "This sets out a range of measures for reducing the number of car trips made to school by children, parents and staff and options for improving safety on the school journey. Today's event was made possible by close co-operation between a range of organisations including DRD Roads Service, the Department of Education, DOE Road Safety Branch, Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity and Translink."
Eamonn Brown, Safer Routes to Schools Officer for Sustrans, said: "Sustrans is delighted to attend the launch of a School Safety Zone at St Brigid's College and we recognise the positive effect walking and cycling to school has on individual school children, as well as the environment."
George Chambers, Vice Principal of St Brigid’s, said: "The completion of the School Safety Zone has greatly improved safety for all our students. It will allow us to promote cycling and walking as the preferred modes of travel and we would like to thank all the agencies for their commitment to the project.
"St Brigid’s are delighted to have been involved at the pilot stage and hope other schools from across the Province can learn from their experience in bringing the vision of a safe route to school for every child, a step closer".
The Safer Routes to School initiative will be expanded to encourage more schools to participate, involving a fast-track approach by embracing a two stage delivery.
The first stage is an Accelerated Programme, which will include a range of work involving traffic management improvements, cycling facilities and infrastructure, including school based education and awareness briefings that encompasses road safety training and opportunities for starting car sharing schemes.
Following the implementation of the Accelerated Programme, a number of schools will be able to progress to the more detailed Enhanced Programme of work, that will include the School Safety Zone, cycle lanes, footpaths and public transport provision inside school grounds. The Enhanced Programme will be delivered through a School Travel Plan.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- DRD’s Regional Transportation Strategy highlights the need for action to address the problems associated with the 'school run' and points to the need for improving the environment for children in and around schools.
- This is in addition to the need for education and awareness raising campaigns, aimed at influencing travel culture and promoting more sustainable modes of travel.
- Six schools in Northern Ireland are participating in the Safer Routes to Schools initiative. The six schools are:
St Joseph's College, Belfast
St Brigid's College, Londonderry
Parkhall College, Antrim
Wallace High School, Lisburn
St Anthony's Primary School, Craigavon
Oakwood Integrated Primary School, Dunmurry
- Innovative Traffic Management Infrastructure has been completed at St Brigid's College in Derry. Similar work is being developed at the other schools.
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