Abu Dhabi: Creating new parking spaces, setting up designated pick-up and drop off zones and changing school timings are some of the solutions the Abu Dhabi Municipality is working on to reduce traffic accidents taking place near Abu Dhabi schools.
Although speeding was named the leading cause for traffic accidents near schools, other factors such as the reliance on private cars for the transportation of students and the lack of appropriate signage surrounding schools are also contributing factors, experts in the capital said on Tuesday.
“All these issues combined create congestion and it is unfair for us to ask parents to send their children to face these dangers on a daily basis. I believe this is partially why school buses are not the preferred choice of transportation for parents,” said Mohammad Al Shateri, Principal Road Safety Engineer at the Abu Dhabi Municipality.
“There also are plans on creating private, free parking spaces for teachers during school working hours but the approval of those is still under way,” he added.
The ongoing school safety improvement project, which was launched in 2012, aims to improve the surroundings of 227 schools falling under the authority of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).
The project is due to finish this summer, with 130 schools remaining.
“The schools are all involved in the project. They all have the numbers of the board members and are able to send us their feedback on a regular basis because they know what their problems facing their areas are more than anyone else. However, we still face problems because our improvements may coincide with ongoing projects in nearby areas, especially in cases of villa schools,” Al Shateri told Gulf News.
Al Shateri was speaking on the sidelines of the eighth annual GCC Municipal Conference taking place in the capital.
“Any new school being built will now face a rigorous inspection of its safety standards so that it can comply with new procedures being adopted by the Abu Dhabi Municipality. The clustering of schools in one area will also be avoided from now on,” he revealed.
Statistics regarding how well the project has worked and the extent of its effect on school safety and parent satisfaction will be announced at the end of this year, the expert said.
