Good practice case studies: children’s safety prioritized at schools in mogale city

Abstract

The South African Road Federation (SARF) undertook a total risk assessment of initially 89 schools in Mogale City considering the road environment, socio economic aspects and current road infrastructure. Fifty schools were selected for further analysis, and out of the fifty, twenty schools with the greatest need for upgrade were selected. Different methods and tools were used to assess and select the schools, such as the iRAP Star Rating for Schools, especially designed questionnaires, crash data analysis, site specific visual assessment of infrastructure, and engineering judgement. The assessment considered quantitative measures (no. of children in the school, age of the children, income levels, mode of transport, traffic volume of the road network, etc.), qualitative measures (level of road safety awareness at a school) and spatial development measures (proximity of schools to major roads, proximity to beer gardens/taverns, location of crashes, population density, land use, proximity to other schools, etc.) Working closely with the Mogale City Engineering Department, SARF implemented measures to mitigate the road safety risks at nine of these schools and measured the impacts afterwards. The measures included improvement of the infrastructure facilities around the schools such as building dedicated walkways, visible road signs and road marking, speed humps and pedestrian crossing points.