Partnership for Road Safety use SR4S to identify and assess high risk schools in Georgia

Image credit: EASST

Original article published by EASST

With the support of the FIA Road Safety Grants Programme and the FIA Foundation, EASST have been working with local partners in Georgia – Partnership for Road Safety and the Georgian FIA Club, the Georgian Motor Sports Federation – to identify and assess the safety of 10 school zones in the municipalities of Zugdidi and Tbilisi using the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) App. Based on the results, improvement works and reduced speed limits will be introduced around the four lowest rated schools with the aim of improving safety for thousands of children on their journeys to and from school.

Earlier this year, key stakeholders including representatives from Tbilisi City Hall, Tbilisi City Assembly, and the State Audit Office were trained to use the SR4S App.

The team then went out to assess 10 schools (5 in Tbilisi and 5 in Zugdidi) and found that many of them lacked traffic calming or safe crossing infrastructure and had speed limits that exceed the recommended 30km/h.

The two lowest rated schools in each municipality included:

Zugdidi

• Public School No. 3 which received a 2 star SR4S rating. This school has 1500 students. The school entrance is on a two lane road with a speed limit of 60km/h. The operating speed is recorded at 65km/h. There is no safe crossing and there is little to no signage indicating that it is a school zone.
• Kakhati Public School No. 1 which received a 1 star SR4S rating. This school has 1000 students. The school entrance is on a three lane road with a speed limit of 40km/h. The operating speed is recorded at 65km/h. The crossing quality is poor and there is little to no signage indicating that it is a school zone.

Tbilisi

• Public School No. 180 which received a 2 star SR4S rating. This school has 5000 students. Student numbers are also expected to increase dramatically over the next few years as students from a nearby school are relocated as their own school undergoes renovation work. The school entrance is on a four-lane road with a speed limit of 50km/h. The operating speed is recorded at 65km/h. There is no safe crossing point and there is little to no signage indicating that it is a school zone.
• Public School No. 117 which received a 2 star SR4S rating. This school has 2500 students. The school entrance is on a two-lane road with a speed limit of 50km/h. The operating speed is recorded at 60km/h. There is no safe crossing and there is little to no signage indicating that it is a school zone.

These four schools will now undergo further review by the municipal authorities and improvements will be recommended. This is likely to include new high quality, high visibility signage provided by 3M, speed limit reductions and new or improved safe crossings. Improvement works are expected to take place ahead of the new school year starting in September.

Local communities and road users, especially parents and teachers, will be made aware of the road improvements and given an opportunity to comment and offer feedback through an information campaign that will run throughout the summer.

The roads will be reassessed and awarded new star ratings following the improvement works.