The Slow Zones, Safe Zones program will continue to improve road safety immensely in Pleiku while increasingly encouraging families to walk and ride their bicycles to school, paving the way for healthier and greener cities.

Article and images reproduced from AIP Foundation News.

Around the world, our community is mobilizing for the #CommitToAct Streets for Life Campaign 2022. AIP Foundation, along with its steadfast partners, is proud to join forces with this global movement from Pleiku, its model city for safe school zones in Vietnam.

Star Rating for Schools Lead Partner AIP Foundation gathered on 17 May with government partners, the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Transport, the Gia Lai Provincial People’s Committee, the Gia Lai Provincial Traffic Safety Committee, and relevant partners for a workshop in Vietnam to celebrate the milestones of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program thus far and kickstart the extension phase.

A celebration of milestones

The Workshop celebrated the following successful milestones of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program:

Star Rating for School (SR4S) assessment results showed all 25 surveyed schools were upgraded to 3-stars and above. 21 schools out of 25 schools were upgraded to 5-stars – the highest ranking safety according to the SR4S methodology.

• The School Zone Definition by the Pleiku’s People’s Committee was approved on May 16 through the legal document 1566/UBND-QLDT. This School Zone Definition will apply to new schools and existing schools undergoing modifications in the city, providing better protection for students commuting to and from school.
• A traffic safety e-curriculum was developed and approved as part of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program. The e-curriculum provides an effective and creative student-centred educational tool for primary students to learn the essential traffic safety skills from a young age. It has been approved by The Ministry of Education. This is the first nationwide-applied traffic safety e-curriculum for primary students in Vietnam.
• The extension of the next phase of the program was signed to continue championing #StreetsForLife in Pleiku.

For all students across Pleiku City, the continuation of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program will not only safeguard them on their commutes to school but will also ensure that all students have safe and equal access to their education. The program has and will continue to improve road safety immensely in Pleiku while increasingly encouraging families to walk and ride their bicycles to school, paving the way for healthier and greener cities.

The legacy of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program

The overall purpose of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program is to reduce road crash injuries and fatalities in school zones. AIP Foundation’s work has demonstrated that the students’ journeys to and from school have become safer through implementations of traffic calming measures, reduction of posted speed limits in school zones, application of interactive learning through an e-curriculum, and public awareness campaigns combined with enforcement of new posted speed limits.

This program, which aims to improve the safety of students’ journeys to and from schools, is supported by Fondation Botnar, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), and iRAP, and aligns with the Global Plan of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. Similarly, Vietnam’s current National Road Safety Strategy supports meeting the goals of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring maximum traffic safety for school zones around the country.

The Sustainable Development Goals are at the heart of the Foundation’s work. SDG target 3.6 calls to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes. This is something that we can only achieve, if we work together to create a lasting global impact with affordable, safe and sustainable mobility for all.

Useful links:

• To read the Press Release for the Workshop, click here.
• To view more photos of the event, click here.
• To read more about AIP Foundation’s long-term work with 30km/h streets in Pleiku, click here.
• For more information on Star Rating for Schools, visit https://starratingforschools.org/