Have you ever thought about school safety and crossings? Well Deputy Mayor, Phillipa Scott from the Inner West Council has. She told Press Gang that there are three things that the Council is doing to improve pedestrian safety.
“One of the things we’re doing is widening footpaths and narrowing roads,” she said.
This means the flow of traffic will be reduced and more children can safely access the footpaths. This has already been added at the entrance to Kegworth Street.
The second thing the council is working on is speed limits. Phillipa has been working with a group of young activists who have been encouraging the Inner West council to dedicate a lot more of their time to school safety. “One thing they’ve told me is that you should never say lower speed limits, you should say ‘safer speed limits’,” she said.
The Deputy Mayor also told Press Gang about wayfinding. “‘Wayfinding’ is putting signs around an area that show you the best and safest way to get to somewhere else. So what we will do is introduce wayfinding signs around schools that show people where the safest crossings are and how everyone can walk safely to school,” she explained.
The Inner West Council also promotes the ‘Illegal parking puts children’s lives at risk; campaign. This program is designed to reinforce that school safety is everyone’s responsibility and students, teachers and civilians out on the street should act if they see anyone in danger.
Press Gang reporters also spoke to Kegworth Principal, Mr Toovey about road safety around our school. He told us that he would love to see road guards to help students cross the road. “In a school where I worked in the UK, every morning I’d see the road guards guiding students across the road,” he said.
In the UK this system has been around since the 1930s and local people from the neighbourhood would greet children as they crossed the road they were known as Lollipop men and women.
In conclusion, student safety near long busy roads is more important than you might think and it’s important for us to think about the safety of ourselves, our friends and classmates.
