A leading partner of the now 6th UN Global Road Safety Week, This is My Street is continuing its worldwide campaign to create safer streets for the world’s children. Safer streets protect young people when they’re on their daily journeys to and from school for example or in busy retail or residential areas.
In an effort to reduce pollution around schools and improve fitness for young people, the UK government made a fund of 2m available to encourage children to walk or cycle to school. This month, The Drive Phase podcast will interview Bikeability Chief Emily Cherry, to find out her thoughts on cycling as a skill.
Now with the capacity to train near 50% of school children, the organisation is dedicated to bringing safe cycle training to the UK curriculum.
Similarly, This is My Street is looking closely at the effects that traffic incidents have on children across the world.
One of the biggest problems affecting children over the age of 10 is the high mortality rates of road traffic incidents. 700 young lives are lost every day, and a massive 250,000 children and young people lose their lives every year worldwide.
The campaign not only seeks to prevent incident but to reduce the effect that poor air quality has on children and their growth. In comparison, children are more susceptible to respiratory infection and developing allergic sensitives such as asthma.
If children are to continue to feel safe cycling and walking to school, it is essential that streets accommodate universal climate-proven necessities.
Their manifesto includes:
- Giving every child and adolescent a safe and healthy journey to school
- To limit the speed of traffic to 30km/h (20mph) in areas where children congregate
- That every urban street has a viable footpath and at-grade crossings
- That every city has an ambitious target for protected cycle lanes
- To have a global adolescent summit to prioritise the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals for adolescent health and rights
Double Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce reflects on her journey to victory. We join Shelly-Ann where it all began, at her high school. She demands the right to safe and healthy streets for every child, so young people everywhere can realise their dreams just as she did. She added:
“I want the girls here to have the opportunities I had, but they’re in danger every time they step out of the gates. Every child has the right to walk to school safely and every child has the right to breath clean air.”
Find out more about road safety for children and the campaign here.
