What can you do as a
municipality or local authority?
You can support the Manifesto to advocate for legislative changes and evaluate your municipality. You will find detailed information in the respective sections of this website.
You can also consult and share the resources on this page in your area of action, for example with organisations in the municipality or even in the plenary session of the City Council.
Additional actions
In addition to the indicators, the “Safe and Healthy School Environments” initiative proposes other actions:
- Review municipal by-laws to improve road safety around schools.
- The development of these school routes projects should include the participation of children, in accordance with their rights as recognised by the United Nations. The educational administrations should guarantee the school routes and promote sustainable travel. As a progressive objective, from primary school onwards, pupils will develop daily habits of active and autonomous mobility. The necessary collaboration with local institutions and organisations, means that the school soutes projects must be understood as an educational resource that allows for collective reflection on the loss of the street by children, making the educational administrations responsible for leadership and coordination in order to reverse this situation.
- Include measures to promote a safe and healthy school environment in the municipal urban development plans. For example, the reservation of green spaces around schools, the intention to include pedestrian or cycle lanes around schools and throughout the municipality.
- Include specific traffic reduction and traffic calming measures around schools in the sustainable urban mobility plans. For example, include pedestrian and cycle lanes, improved signage and a change in the mobility hierarchy to give priority to pedestrians.
- Prioritise proximity to school as a basic criterion for the school area, for the benefit of children and the whole community. It is proposed to reverse the implementation of the ‘single school zone’, which has had such a negative impact on the increase in daily motorised journeys. It should be borne in mind that the most common walking distance between home and school is 1.5 km and the distance that can be cycled is about 4 km.
- Promote public transport. Ensure that public transport stops are safe, accessible and child-friendly, and that there are enough stops in the urban area. Reduced fares should also be considered if the school or secondary school is far from the city centre.