As part of their Mobility Management efforts in the Cities.multimodal project, UBC member Karlskrona has carried out the first part of their pilot campaign directed towards the mobility of children. The first part has involved visiting local school classes and informing about traffic rules, sustainable mobility and the importance of visibility when engaging in active mobility in the winter darkness. The most exciting part was of course the competition in which the classes competed to see which one could walk and cycle the most, using their new reflective safety vests.
Photo: Nanna Lindell, Karlskrona municipality, 2019
As can be seen in the photo, for each day a child succeed in completing the challenge they were allowed to put a sticker up on the poster. The class with the most stickers after two weeks won. The competition was partly encompassed by a national initiative and one of the local classes was actually named the best 6th graders in the whole country when it comes to walking and cycling, which was celebrated both by the municipality and in all the local news outlets.
Additionally, surveys and observations were conducted during the implementation of the campaign in order to gather information regarding the mobility patterns of the children and their parents. The survey was filled out by all students and the observation was conducted by posting employees outside the school who counted how many children arrived by each mode of transport (car, public transport, walking or cycling). This was done in order to see how much of the traffic around schools is caused by the parents. During rush hour, almost 50% of all traffic consisted of cars going to the school. This information will be used in future municipal efforts directed towards schools, primarily to attempt to decrease the number of children who are driven to school by their parents and to increase the perceived safety around schools.
Next part of the pilot campaign will take place during the spring of 2020 and will focus more on developing practical skills. Among other things, the children will get the opportunity to meet the local traffic engineers and to practice their cycling skills in an obstacle course.
To find out more please contact:
Kenneth.gyllensting@karlskrona.se Environmental strategist
Cajsa.1.andersson@karlskrona.se Project planner