Solution found or in the making for three quarters of bottlenecks on school routes | Inland

Two years ago, Peeters called on local authorities to report bottlenecks on school routes on regional roads. 708 of those locations were selected. Peeters now announces that work has already been carried out on 182 of those bottlenecks to improve road safety for school-age children and young people. This concerns, for example, the improvement of bicycle and pedestrian paths, the improvement of intersections and the construction or improvement of zebra crossings or crossings for cyclists.

Work is currently underway at 92 other locations, construction is planned at 21 locations and construction is in preparation at 228 locations. Together, these are 523 places where a solution for a identified bottleneck has already been found or is in the making, accounting for three quarters (74 percent) of the selected locations, it sounds like.

88 other locations are still being investigated, while 97 locations are ‘on hold’, which means that additional input from external partners is expected, the minister explains. Peeters has already allocated 30 million euros to improve the school routes on regional roads and school routes on municipal roads, for which the local authorities can make use of a financial contribution.

“We have capitalized on the knowledge of local authorities with the bottlenecks on school routes,” she says. “Cities and municipalities often have a direct view of what can and must change on the way to and from school in order to improve road safety. Together with the local authorities, I want to drastically increase road safety in Flanders, especially for our school-going youth. They are the ideal bicycle ambassadors to help realize the ‘modal’ and ‘mental shift’ in the medium term.”

Every day, thirteen children are injured in an accident to or from school