Review and Outlook of School Children’s Safety

1. Foreword

According to the results of the Taipei City Elementary School Safety Survey commissioned by the Taipei City ***, the Jingjuan Children’s Safety Culture and Education Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the Jingjuan Foundation) , 30.4% of students said they had been injured on the way to and from school, and the average number of injuries per person was 1.96 times; there are 151 elementary schools in Taipei City, with about 170,000 students, and there are quite a lot of people going to and from school every day. Although students spend a lot of time going to and from school, due to the different environmental conditions around each school, the traffic phenomena are also different. In recent years, the situation of "low birthrate" and "cross-district study" has affected parents. Parents attach great importance to the safety of school children, so parents often use cars, motorcycles or day care vehicles to pick them up. Also, because the pedestrian space environment on the roads around primary and secondary schools in various countries in the country is not perfect, students, pedestrians and vehicles intersect on the road. This not only causes traffic disorder on the roads around the school, but also seriously threatens the safety of children and pedestrians. Therefore, the safety of school children and the maintenance of traffic order around schools are issues that deserve the attention of the Chinese people.

For a long time, Taipei City*** has been adhering to the concept of prioritizing the safety of school children. In addition to being committed to improving the school environment, it also organizes the "Walk to School Week" event every year on International Car-Free Day. For the first time since the Republic of China in 1995, we have cooperated with the Jingjuan Foundation to conduct a comprehensive review of the safety of children's journeys to school and environmental improvements, and propose specific actions based on the school environment and individual case needs; We have been working hard on road safety for a long time. We start from the perspective of children, combine the cooperation model of civil society, communities and governments, and then use the three aspects of project improvement, education promotion and strengthening law enforcement to eliminate the problems of school children going to and from school. Eliminate potential traffic threats and provide a safe environment for commuting to school. Secondly, through the successful experience and implementation model of Taipei City, it emphasizes the importance of the safety of school children on their way to school, thereby providing a reference for various counties and cities to implement policies.

2. Children’s safety issues when traveling to school

A survey conducted by the Yi Jingjuan Foundation in 1996 found that more than 70% of school children in urban areas were transported to and from school by automobile and motorcycle, and 53.0 Parents consider factors such as traffic or personal safety and are unwilling to let their children walk to school. If this ratio is compared with the way parents look back on how they went to and from school when they were children, more than 70% of them walk to school on their own, which shows that the pattern of school children has changed. A very clear change. As for the top three factors that parents worry about not letting their children walk to school, they are too far (15.6%), too fast a car (14.1%) and fear of their children being kidnapped (11.6%): In addition, they think that poor road facilities and people Cars fighting for the lane accounted for more than 40% of the total. It can be seen that most parents still dare not let their children walk to school rashly because school children are not yet mature physically and mentally, and their understanding of the road environment, transportation facilities, or common sense has yet to be developed.

Sandels (1975) conducted research and observations on children’s traffic behavior and found that children’s concepts and cognitions are far from those of adults. Children’s cognition and thinking are self-centered. And easily distracted by the surrounding environment. In addition, students are evacuated in groups when going to and from school. The traffic load around the school increases significantly in a short period of time. The interweaving of people and vehicles and the circulation of evacuation routes become the key to whether children can pass safely. In addition, considering the slow walking speed of children, , low-grade students have special biological and psychological conditions such as short stature, differences in visual cognition, and insufficient awareness of dangers. The considerations for traffic environment planning should be different from those of adults to meet actual needs.

Although there are still many man-made, legal or technical restrictions and difficulties in significantly changing the pedestrian environment and traffic patterns around the school, the Taipei City ***, the Jingjuan Foundation and the school have In addition to persisting in identifying problems and looking for feasible solutions and measures, we also coordinate with local neighbors, businesses and units, and cooperate with on-site surveys to strive for gradual improvements. We hope to start from small steps and gradually improve the safety index of children going to school.

Participate in and improve the planning process for school routes

Since 1995, Taipei City *** has cooperated with the Jingjuan Foundation, the Traffic Safety Culture and Education Foundation, and the Transportation Management Department of Tamkang University. The Department cooperates with groups such as the Taipei City Guide Volunteer Corps to develop a working model that can implement school safety through continuous attempts; perhaps the general public will think that it should be led by the public sector, but in terms of the manpower required , coordination matters, time and other factors are not a very efficient approach. Therefore, through the connection and voice of civil society, we have a deep understanding of the problems and journey safety needs, and then through the public sector to establish a single counterpart and integrate the management and tracking , not only can it overcome the shortage of manpower in the public service system and the difficulties of horizontal connections or division of labor; with the cooperation of the three parties and the same goal, it can further implement the safety environment of school children's journeys to the entire work and rule process, as shown in Figure 1.

4. Traffic safety education and promotion

Traffic accidents are not only the top ten causes of death among children in Taiwan, but also the "World Health Organization" published in 1997 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund. The "Child Injury Prevention Report" also shows that more than 700 children die in traffic accidents every day internationally, and more than 27,000 are injured as a result; therefore, promoting road safety for school children is a universal issue that cities should pay attention to. , by focusing on improving the school environment to reduce the occurrence of children's traffic accidents and make children travel safely.

In addition to traffic engineering and enforcement, traffic safety education (Education) is an indispensable and important link in improving the safety environment of school children. Traffic safety education should emphasize any Individuals, society or governments need to have long-term and immediate learning concepts, and in terms of subjective or objective actions, people should be equipped with basic and necessary traffic safety knowledge and emergency response capabilities and attitudes from childhood to adulthood. Only by effectively and continuously implementing traffic safety education into living and learning literacy can we reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and protect the life safety of school children.

1. Implement the goals of traffic safety education

(1) Life practice: start from the traffic environment, facilities and traffic situations around school children’s lives to understand and implement them in real life middle.

(2) Life experience: From observation or actual experience and case analysis, understand the horror of traffic accidents, their causes and impact, and then remind students to pay attention to things on their way to school and cherish the value of life .

(3) Livelihood development: Let schoolchildren become familiar with traffic regulations, facilities, use and maintenance, and also understand modern citizens’ awareness and adaptability to traffic safety, making them essential for survival and a lifelong learning object.

2. Methods of traffic safety education

Targeting parents, in addition to communicating through leaflets, schools are also asked to explain this during the Parent Day (school day) at the beginning of the term. The school's traffic safety plan and projects that require the cooperation of parents; in addition, traffic safety education targeting school children includes the following items.

(1) Environmental education: Because students spend a long time in the surrounding environment of the campus, environmental education can play a subtle role in establishing their traffic safety concepts; for example, integrating various transportation facilities (including signs, signs or markings), traffic safety slogans and theme knowledge, etc., allowing children to learn and become familiar with them naturally in the environment.

(2) Curriculum Integrated Teaching: Transportation is closely related to life. If any material including language, society or nature can be integrated into the teaching process, it can not only diversify the teaching, but also make it more concrete. By implementing traffic safety into daily life, it is easier for children to integrate learning (or internalization) into their daily lives.

(3) Theme activities: Carry out theme publicity activities of "Traffic Safety Week" or "Traffic Safety Month" in conjunction with the start of the school term, off-campus teaching or graduation travel. Through multiple reminders and relevant Cooperate with publicity activities to deepen their correct understanding and behavior of traffic safety.

Telling stories at gatherings

Promoting traffic safety puzzle games

Figure 2: Photos of traffic safety education in elementary schools

Wu , Integration of community resources

Schools are part of the community. Traditionally, primary schools are more neighborhood centers; in recent years, public departments have promoted school communityization and de-enclosures, with the aim of sharing resources and developing prosperously. At first glance, the work of promoting safety on the way to school does not seem to be directly related to community connection, but after several years of promotion experience, the Jingjuan Foundation knows that if there is a good communication channel between the community and the school, the school can proactively invite the community** * By participating together, community residents can sacrifice minor personal interests based on safeguarding the safety of school children. By trusting each other, helping each other and cooperating, they will be able to successfully overcome various problems faced by school children in the safety of their journey to school.

Take Hedi Elementary School in Zhongzheng District, Taipei City as an example. For a long time, there has been a lack of sidewalks on both sides of Hedi Elementary School. Although parents have repeatedly reported the danger of pedestrians and vehicles competing for the road on the road leading to the school, the school and the school The mayor also tried hard to improve it, but due to funding and the community's inability to gather political awareness, sidewalks were delayed. Later, through the coordination of the Taipei City Transportation Bureau, Education Bureau and Jingjuan Foundation, etc. , Chief Zou Li of the river embankment communicated with the residents many times and coordinated that the pedestrian space is not only used by school children to go to and from school, but community residents are also its users, and can use it to tidy up the surrounding environment and improve the lives of the neighbors. Concepts such as quality finally won the support of the local residents, and a complete pedestrian space was established around the school, so that *** can contribute to the safety of students on their way to school.

In addition to the improvement of hardware construction, community cooperation is often an important part of the safety of the journey to school. Therefore, the Jingjuan Foundation combined with the Hedili Community Development Association and important people in the community to form a Child Safety Committee, this committee promotes more safety-related work in the community, including educating residents not to park vehicles at will, occupy sidewalks, and jointly maintain pedestrian spaces; this is an extremely typical case, and I believe it is still the case in China. There are many similar situations that need to be solved urgently. Effective cooperation with the community and mutual recognition will create the common needs for school children's safety on their journeys and the improvement of the community environment.

Land, effectiveness analysis

The Taipei City *** Transportation Bureau and the Jingjuan Foundation have cooperated since 1995 to assist the city’s elementary schools in improving the safety of school children’s journeys. So far, There are 24 elementary schools in Zhongzheng District (8 schools), Neihu District (4 schools), Shilin District (3 schools), Beitou District (2 schools) and Xinyi District (7 schools); previously there were 16 The primary school’s *** inspection found 189 unsafe items (including illegal parking, potholes on sidewalks, bicycle routes, safety education, signal timing, volunteer guidance, law enforcement, and safe paths to school, etc.), and there have been 173 Improvements have been completed, with an improvement rate of 91.5%; among them, the biggest changes are the addition of the pedestrian system of Hedi Elementary School, the demolition of the overpass of Mandarin Elementary School, the improvement and addition of the pedestrian system of Fulin Elementary School, and the construction of the pedestrian system of Nanhu Elementary School. The primary school gate rectification project, and the comparison of the situation before and after the improvement, please see the photo in Figure 3; other improvement projects and measures, such as the removal of obstacles, the implementation of motorcycle withdrawal from sidewalks and arcades, replanting of road trees and environmental maintenance, etc. , see Table 1.

Table 1: The effectiveness of Taipei City’s implementation of road safety for elementary school children

Lu, Conclusion

The "World Report on Child Injury Prevention" (2008 Edition) points out , the universal implementation of effective preventive measures can save more than half of children's lives; that is to say, "use the right method to do the right thing." School children are the new life of the country and the masters of the future. The country, society and even individuals should educate them The safety of the journey is protected as much as possible.

The cooperation model between the Taipei City *** Transportation Bureau and the Jingjuan Foundation started from 1995 to 1997. Although the number of schools served is only 24, it goes deep into the community and takes a steady and steady approach to solve school children's travel safety through practical actions. In addition to solving the primary traffic environment problems, it also continues to provide problem diagnosis and improvement services for new traffic safety issues arising from schools, becoming a long-term partner of schools in safety maintenance work; in the future, Taipei City *** In addition to continuing to prepare budgets for implementation, we have also applied for subsidies from the central government to expand the scale of service schools. We will use past implementation experience and results to develop an outline plan as an implementation guideline. It is planned to be implemented every year until the 101st year of the Republic of China. 30 schools are targeted for improvement to create a safe environment for students to travel to school, so that Taipei City can move towards the goal of a "safe city".

Source of the article:

The author is Luo Hsiao-hsien, former Director of the Transportation Bureau of Taipei City ***

This article is from the first semi-annual issue of the Jingjuan Foundation published in 1997 period