Tilburg Veilig Naar School

Short summary

Tilburg veilig naar school is a project which accurately translates into English as, Tilburg safely to school. The project is an initiative taken by the city council and the primary schools of Tilburg in order to approach the theme of safety in regard to children travelling to and from school. Tilburg veilig naar school wants to structurally approach this theme of safety. The approached topics, the ones which Tilburg veilig naar school covers, within the theme of safety are listed below:

• Informing parents of their traffic behaviour (understanding from a child's perspective)
• The bike and safety measures (bike doctor, e.g. correct installations on the bike)
• The digital traffic quiz (Best traffic-class of Tilburg)
• Traffic-snake (game for children, continuous orientation around safety)
• Safety surrounding the school (project for the whole year)
• Blind-spot project (educational activity about the blind spot)
• Distractions on the bike (educational activity about distractions while biking)
• Braking demonstration (demonstration of the various effects speed has on a braking distances)

Tilburg invites all primary schools around the city to participate in these topics. The ambition of Tilburg is that all primary schools will participate in Tilburg veilig naar school, and the goal for 2020 is that at least 50% of the primary schools are participating.

Context

The city of Tilburg has noticed that the mobility situation for children travelling to school can be a dangerous one. The situation is classified as dangerous because commutes are made up of pedestrians, bikers and car users. These 3 different travel methods can cause for chaotic situations which can put children in danger. Tilburg veilig naar school therefore orientates itself around making the journey to and from school for children as safe as possible, with the focus on the pedestrians and bikers, as they can obtain the most fatal injuries from these dangerous encounters.

Safety is an important theme when considering mobility, especially when considering mobility of active modes. Safety of active modes must be reassured before being able to grow as the future of mobility.

Transformational Measures and Activities

Transformational measure and activities are like the ones listed in the short summary. Those are the activities which consist of the Tilburg veilig naar school package. Most of the measures and activities are educational ones about the awareness of safety and how to approach it.

Aside from this, physical measures include installation of proper bike measures (bike doctor) and the safety of the situation surrounding the roads by the primary schools.

Results

Results include;

• Safer situations around the primary schools of Tilburg
• More awareness about safety and its importance
• Children involved in creating mobility solutions
• Less traffic accidents
• Behavioral change, reduction of car usage, promotion sustainable modes (more active modes, bikers and pedestrians)
• Virtual innovations involving the stimulation of healthy and sustainable modes
• Creative approach to public space (crystallization points: walking trees, street closure, moving parking spaces etc.)

Challenges, Opportunities and Transferability

A challenge could be that behavioral change can be hard to achieve. People must feel the need before being able to change behaviors.

Transferability should be plausible as it is made up of measures which can be implemented anywhere. Transferability is possible if you involve organizations, focused on safety, for example, in Tilburg we already have the BVL (Brabant Verkeersveiligheids Label) and the VVN (Veilig Verkeer Nederland) organizations which focus on the safety of mobility.

An opportunity is that safety around schools and the surrounding neighbourhoods will get safer. And could have a chain reaction effect to all surroundings of the city.

In Depth

http://www.bvlbrabant.nl/assets/structured-files/PDFs/Veilig%20naar%20school%20Tilburg.pdf