Schools Count! project

Today, many children are still brought to school by car in Belgium, leading towards negative consequences regarding health, traffic safety and climate goals.  Many cities, towns and schools want to change this travel behaviour and empower children, and their parents, to come to school on foot or by bike. 

To achieve that aim, the main routes to and from school should be safe to travel and school environments should be redesigned for children instead of cars. That’s exactly what the project ‘Schools Count!’ is all about. 

Through objective traffic counts with ‘Telraam’ (www.telraam.net), citizen science, co-creation and test measures, ‘Schools Count!’ seeks to improve road safety around and on the roads to school. The project makes sure to let all stakeholders participate, contribute and let their voices be heard, including the children themselves. 

The ultimate goal? School routes and environments that are safe enough so children and their parents can walk and cycle there comfortably and car(e)free! Furthermore ‘Schools Count!’ aims for a long-term impact among the children in their attitude towards sustainable mobility thanks to the insights gained.

How does it work? 

It all starts with data. To make school environments safer and more attractive to walk and cycle to school, it’s important to understand what makes them unsafe in the first place. Children, teachers and neighbours collect reliable data by counting traffic around their school with Telraam (www.telraam.net), an automated sensor that registers the number of pedestrians, cyclists, cars and heavy vehicles in a street, including their speed and direction. All from behind your average first-floor window. 

Next, children and teachers analyse and interpret the Telraam data together. Using specially developed lesson cards, they also discuss topics like road safety, urban planning and climate change. Children scrutinize their travel behaviour and dream aloud about ways to make their school environment better. 

The idea is that in different lessons and through different assignments, children are triggered to work together with each other, teachers, as well as parents and neighbours in next steps and come up with co-created solutions. Solutions that will ensure that more parents and children come to school in an active way. The combination of the teaching packages and the results of the Telraams ensure a high degree of awareness among the children. This will result in a sustainable adjustment of travel behaviour on the short and long haule.

To see if potential solutions work, they are tested through test measures. These can range from an awareness campaign, organising a bike pool and foot pool, to installing bollards to reduce speed, removing car parking spaces and more. Through Telraam, and surveys, the effect of the test measures is monitored and evaluated.

The Schools Count! approach was successfully tested and evaluated at schools in 5 municipalities in Flanders and is currently being implemented in Wallonia and 3 other schools in the Flemish region. The target groups of Schools Count! are primary school children (9 - 12y), their teachers, their parents, and the neighbours of the school. Of course, the local government also plays a role in the deployment of test measures in the school environment or roads to school.

More information via https://www.mobiel21.be/campagnes-en-projecten/school-op-de-teller (Dutch only) or simply contact me via this platform.