In the US:
- 55% of public support physical changes such as road closures, limiting traffic and reducing speeds to protect children, rising to 63% of parents who are also concerned about air quality and road safety
- Third of parents think roads around schools are dangerous for their child to walk or cycle to school
- Almost half of parents would change children’s school journeys to walk and cycle as part of COVID 19 social distancing measures, but only if streets are safe
- Half of adults are concerned about air quality in their local area, rising to 60% of parents already concerned about road safety
Vehicle restrictions to protect young people from road traffic injury and the wider community from COVID-19 exposure and air pollution are emphatically supported by the public, according to the research by the Child Health Initiative, a global health partnership co-ordinated by international philanthropy the FIA Foundation.
The global pandemic has focused public and political attention on the importance for public health of safe and healthy streets. Many cities have introduced new or temporary cycle lanes and widened footpaths, and reduced vehicle speed limits. The journey to school, undertaken by millions of children every day, is a particularly urgent issue, as road traffic injury remains the leading cause of death for children and young people worldwide. The polling shows strong support for these measures from parents and the wider community.
Polling across 11 countries in five continents found:
- Almost three-quarters of people support physical changes such as road closures, limiting traffic and reducing speeds to protect children worldwide
- Three in five worried about air pollution
- More than half of journeys to school are not safe, think parents
- More than two-thirds of parents would change the journey to school to walking and cycling as part of COVID-19 social distancing measures, but only if streets were safe
The polling is launched today in tandem with new UNICEF and Child Health Initiative global guidance to help manage the risks posed by COVID-19 and ensure the safest, healthiest journeys to school possible. ‘Guidance For Safe And Healthy Journeys To School During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond’ aims to help schools, policymakers and local governance to develop the safest, most appropriate interventions to make kids safe as more than a billion young people begin to return to education. Its ten-step guide highlights the simple, low-cost ways to deliver the street level interventions so widely supported by the polling that will not just make streets safer in the pandemic, but in the long-term for children and the wider population. The Child Health Initiative is further calling for a package of ‘Speed Vaccine’ measures – safe footpaths and crossing, cycle lanes and vehicle speed reductions – proven to reduce serious road injury and deaths, to be widely and urgently adopted wherever children and traffic mix.
In the US:
A third of parents (33%) with children between five and 18 felt streets were not safe on the journey to school. While US parents were the least concerned about road safety in the global poll of countries conducted by the Child Health Initiative, the US actually has triple the overall rate of child road deaths compared to other developed countries according to the New England Journal of Medicine; 4,074 children were killed on US roads in 2017, more than firearms or cancer.
There is overwhelming support from the whole community - not just parents - for measures to slow, restrict or ban cars around school zones to protect kids. More than half of respondents (55%) supported these measures.
Almost half of parents (47%) whose children do not walk or cycle to school currently would commit to shift modes to school to support COVID-19 distancing measures, but only if the streets were safe. This represents a potentially huge change in how millions of school journeys are made – reducing pollution, encouraging physical activity, and reducing congestion, while at the same time reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Half of all respondents (50%) were concerned about air quality.
About the Guidance For Safe And Healthy Journeys To School During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond
Guidance For Safe And Healthy Journeys To School During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond is a UNICEF document, developed with the support from the Child Health Initiative and members, such as Save the Children, is issuing guidance to help manage the risks posed by COVID-19, to help ensure the safest, healthiest journeys to school possible.
This guidance is for education authorities and policymakers; school administrators, teachers and staff; parents, caregivers and community members; and students. It will complement the UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank, World Food Programme and UNHCR global framework for reopening schools and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) interim guidance for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Schools. By issuing broad, illustrative guidance, this document is intended to encompass the varying needs of children of different ages and abilities living in different contexts. It is understood that solutions may be feasible in some areas and not others, for multiple reasons, including funding issues.
About the Child Health Initiative
The Child Health Initiative is coordinated by leading global road safety philanthropy the FIA Foundation.
The Child Health Initiative is an informal collaboration of organisations committed to advocating for the rights of children and adolescents to safe and sustainable mobility, and working together to implement and promote practical solutions. For a full list of partners see www.childhealthinitiative.org
Learn more about the speed vaccine in the These are our streets: Manifesto 2030 which calls for a transformation of urban streets by 2030 into safe, low speed and accessible space that puts people first, encouraging zero-carbon walking and cycling, by deploying the ‘Speed Vaccine’: safe footpaths and crossings; protected cycleways; and maximum 30 km/h speed limits anywhere children and traffic mix.
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