Councillor’s call for school zone traffic ban is rejected
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Kate Blake, a Labour councillor in Aberdeen, is asking her colleagues to support her calls to improve road safety around schools for young people.
Her youngest child was hit by a car seven years ago and was only four years old.
She has pleaded with other councillors asking for support to introduce a new road safety scheme called School Streets.
Ms Blake’s calls for the scheme were rejected by both the Liberal Democrats and SNP administrations.
What is the School Streets scheme?
The School Streets scheme would see roads around school areas be temporarily closed to traffic before and after the school day, making the street pedestrianised.
Although, roads would remain open for anyone who is in possession of a blue badge, or for anyone who lives in the area that has been closed off.
The initiative would aim to stop parents driving their children to school and would motivate them to walk, cycle, or ride scooters to school instead.
Several charities have also highlighted the importance of safety on roads, especially around school zones where there are more children.
Why is it important to have road safety around schools?
According to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), every month there are 1,200 children injured by a traffic related issues within a 500-meter radius of a school.
Furthermore, a quarter of casualties caused by road traffic are of children aged 13 to 15 years old.
Neil Greig, a road safety expert and policy advisor at the Institute of Advanced Motorists says road safety is a growing issue that must be addressed: “There’s a bit of a quiet time on road safety, we don’t seem to be making any progress.
“We’re very keen that the governments in Westminster and Holyrood get together and make some progress and try to eliminate all deaths and go for some sort of long-term vision.
“Although, we have had 20 mile per hour speed limits outside schools in Scotland for many, many years now, particular on main roads and that’s been a big success.
“I would never deny investment outside schools, but you do need investment in the wider, broader areas where people live and you also need to be looking at things like young drivers and so on, because that’s the area where young people are most at risk.”
The School Streets scheme has been introduced in other cities, like Edinburgh and Glasgow, to reduce traffic around schools and aim to make the roads safer for children.
