Implementing pedestrian safety interventions Attachment C <br />Attachment B <br />Education, outreach and training <br />Safe road-user behaviour and a reduction in pedestrian fatalities depend not only on <br />knowledge and skills but also on community support, perception of vulnerability and <br />risk, social norms and models, engineering measures and law enforcement (1,4). It is <br />therefore important for practitioners and decision-makers to remember that road safe- <br />ty education is an adjunct to other measures, rather than a stand-alone intervention. <br />Road safety educational programmes may include the following: <br />. Raising awareness. This can include informing drivers about care, prudence, <br />kindness, consideration, speed, pedestrian right-of-the way and traffic rules; <br />. School-based education. Such programmes help children acquire knowledge and <br />skills for pedestrian safety (3o). While these are important life skills and all children <br />should be taught the rules of the road, school-based traffic education will only <br />result in reduced pedestrian collisions when combined with other interventions. <br />. Outreach. The school-home journey is a point of considerable exposure and risk <br />for children. An important question to consider is when - what time of the day, <br />which day of the week, and which month of the year - children are most at risk. <br />Child pedestrians walking alongside or among vehicular traffic are at risk for many <br />reasons: they often lack the ability to distinguish between safe and unsafe crossing <br />gaps and sites, putting them at risk as they cross the road; they themselves may <br />be distracted or are at risk from distracted drivers using their mobile phones (31). <br />One strategy to improve the safety of school-going children is the use of a walking <br />school bus (see Box 4.7). <br />BOX 4.7: Walking school bus <br />80 <br />Originally developed in Australia, walking school <br />buses typically have one adult leading a parade of <br />children, while a second adult follows the group. In <br />the middle is a line of children who are 'walking' on <br />the 'bus'. The bus crosses a community, picking up <br />children at their homes and arriving at a school. It <br />takes the reverse route after school. Studies indi- <br />cate that walking school buses are effective ways <br />to maintain children's safety and also promote an <br />active community and physical exercise (32). Beyond <br />safer transportation to school, children gain some <br />minutes of walking exercise per day, which is useful <br />for their health (33). <br />The walking school bus concept has been imple- <br />mented in many countries around the world including <br />China, the Philippines, the Republic of South Africa, <br />the United States and the UK. The walking school <br />bus has a number of challenges. The first challenge <br />is the practicality of sustaining these programmes, <br />which rely on volunteers (34). A second challenge <br />is that walking school buses are easier to use on <br />the way to school, but do not seem to work well for <br />the return trips as children leave at different times. <br />The third challenge is that these schemes tend to <br />concentrate in high-income neighbourhoods, and not <br />in areas with high levels of deprivation and greater risk <br />for children (32). <br />Page 226 <br />