Article and image credit: AAZ

The Automobile Association of Zimbabwe (AAZ) met with the Mayor of Bulawayo – His Worship David Coltart – at the Bulawayo Town House last week for a roundtable discussion on how to improve road safety for the most vulnerable road users, specifically primary school children, as part of the FIA Foundation and FIA  Safe and Sustainable Mobility Grants Program. The day saw city engineers, newly trained in the iRAP Methodologies recognised, and first practical road safety assessments completed at two primary schools.

The Zimbabwe Youth in Action for Safe Streets for All is a training program for young road engineers, technicians, and town planners on using road assessment tools, particularly the iRAP Methodologies, to empower them in designing and reimagining streets that prioritise the safety and well-being of all road users.

Six trainees were presented with certificates of completion for the iRAP Star Rating Essentials course by the Mayor of Bulawayo. He expressed his pride in the young City of Bulawayo and ZINARA (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) engineers for their attainment of new iRAP expertise. The Mayor emphasised the importance of applying this acquired knowledge to benefit the city and its residents.

The Automobile Association of Zimbabwe project for safe school zones is training at least 22 road engineers and transport planners from 3 of Zimbabwe’s biggest cities, being Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.  “We anticipate assessing more than 20 schools this year in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare and implement infrastructure improvements in as many schools as possible following the iRAP Star Rating for Schools recommendations. Because of budgetary limitations, we will fully develop some sites and others we will employ tactical urbanism to remedy the potential road risk around schools while we further fundraise for more permanent solutions,” said Ms Pamela Ndlovu, who is the project lead from AAZ.

In his remarks, the Honourable Coltart recalled growing up as a child, how he made most of his school trips on a bicycle in Bulawayo, and how that was the norm for most people in the 1970s and 1980s. He acknowledged how dangerous using the road has become for all road users, but more so for pedestrians. He also mentioned his interest in the project of creating safe school zones in Bulawayo, following a standard that will be set by the modifications that will be conducted under the Automobile Association of Zimbabwe project using the iRAP Star Rating for Schools methodology.

“As the City of Bulawayo, we’re excited to see you roll out this project as a model to show the basic standards for Safe School Zones. Bulawayo does not need to import anything to improve the infrastructure around schools and save lives. We have all the materials being produced right here in our community. So together with the Director of Works and his team, we look forward to the completion of this project after your assessments and recommendations so that we can reconvene and come up with a 5-year plan to roll out safe school zones in Bulawayo,” said Mayor Coltart.

Speaking at the same meeting, Mr Sam Nyaude of Road Safe Zimbabwe Trust emphasised the need for redesigning streets for people and moving away from a car-centric road design. In his remarks he said, “It’s time we relook at our roads from a five-year-old’s perspective. That way, we make the streetscape safer for all and reduce serious road injuries and deaths. The Safe Systems Approach to road safety has evidence-based research showing that it is possible to reduce road risk by improving road design to accommodate mistakes by road users and also machine failures.”

The meeting was attended by various stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Road Safe Zimbabwe Trust, Bulawayo City Road Works Department, ZINARA (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) and members of the media.

The day ended with the Bulawayo engineers conducting their first practical assessments at two primary schools that lie on the periphery of the Bulawayo central business district along Samuel Parirenyatwa Street – Coghlan and Milton Primary Schools.

Nigel Moyo, a Civil Engineer at the City of Bulawayo, under the Department of Works, being one of the successful trainees, acknowledged how the iRAP Methodology simplified assessments and provided potential remedies for infrastructure improvements to improve the star rating. “This short course provides a better and more structured way to deal with road risk remedies. I’m happy to be part of this project and hopefully, through our experience, we can solve a lot of the road risk issues within our city,” he said.

This collaborative effort underscores a shared commitment to creating safer and more sustainable mobility solutions for the city and country as a whole.

Zimbabwe is recorded as one of the most dangerous countries to use the road, based on a number of reports. While the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe estimates that two thousand people are killed every year on Zimbabwe’s roads, it is evident that a lot can be done to reduce the road carnage.

For more information:

• On Star Rating for Schools, click here.
• On iRAP Training, click here.
• On iRAP in Zimbabwe, visit the iRAP Partner Portal here.