2023-05-07 11:23:40
2023 will be the year of activation of the process that will lead to the School Mobility Action Plan of Donostia, which is structured around seven actions: the drafting of a manifesto in favor of sustainable, active, safe and autonomous school mobility; the creation of the figure of the mobility manager in the school environment; updating the treatment of road safety education and school mobility in educational centers; promoting the improvement of school environments and itineraries; the promotion of modes of transport and active mobility habits; the creation of a school mobility emblem and the activation of a Communication Plan.
It will be the year of startup, not of implementation of the aforementioned plan since, as recognized by the Councilor for Mobility, Pilar Arana, the development of the process as a whole and its implementation will take a while.
The progress that the project takes depends on numerous variables, such as the pace that each center adopts in the execution of the tasks that they have to assume and theto approval of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUS) of the city to which it is linked.
The school path is an initiative “whose objective is to promote and facilitate that boys and girls go to school on foot and independently”, Always prioritizing your safety.
The task, acknowledges Arana, is complex and the necessary involvement of schools, disparate. The needs and problems are not similar either, since there are cases that are more difficult to remedy.
The plan also aims “develop critical awareness of children” since, when it comes to mobility, they are often given “a passive role”.
Besides, seeks to involve the educational community as a whole, from families to educators or neighbors, in promoting a necessary change “so that boys and girls can exercise their right to walk through safe streets.”
Another purpose of the plan is the creation of safe itineraries so that schoolchildren can carry out your daily commutes by walking or cycling.
The School Mobility Action Plan involves one more stage on the path that the Donostia City Council began in 2003, when a specific line of work was launched on the matter.
The foundations, stresses Arana, are solidgiven that the previous initiatives in the line of School Roads They have even served as an example in other places.
The plan is set up as “an educational, transversal, participatory and transformation project of public space and mobility habits” on the way to school.
Deepening the collaboration between the City Council and schools is key, as has already been evidenced with the development of different actions, from the School Agenda 21, already converted into the 2030 agenda, that was implemented in 90% of the schools and institutes of the city, to the program school path y Let’s walk to school!designed “in complicity with the rest of the educational community”.
Another line of work is the one that affects the physical transformation of the environment of the centers, always in order to guarantee the safety of schoolchildren. In this sense, different improvements have been carried out in areas adjacent to various centers such as Ikasbide Ikastola, Jakintza, Zuhaizti, Haurreskola Urbieta, Instituto Peñaflorida, La Salle, Colegio San José, Arantzazuko Ama and Intxaurrondo Ikastola.
The improvements made are very varied and range from the transfer of rubbish containers so that they do not hinder the visibility of pedestrian crossings to the incorporation of zones 30 and zones 20 on the perimeter of the centers.
Because, Arana abounds, in the global planning process of the city in terms of mobility, the axis of the schools is fundamental since, sometimes, what happens in their environment has important side effects, as occurs in the cases ofe Summa Aldapeta and Jesuitas, centers located in the urban fabric where episodes of traffic jams and traffic problems occur when mothers and fathers take the students to the centers, something that, underlines the Mobility mayor, worries the neighborhood that has complained on repeated occasions because “fathers and mothers leave their cars anywhere place”.
Problems are also generated, points out Arana, some schools located in Miracruz-Ategorrieta or in the perimeter of the ikastola La Zurriola.
“It is important that the centers themselves begin to work to then collaborate with the City Council in adopting the appropriate measures, always putting the safety of minors as a priority ”, he assures.
Stages to complete
“Now we have to work within the City Council and in large schools, which must have their own Mobility Plan”, explains Arana, who advances that the Consistory “will support in everything that is necessary and that the resources allow.”
“I think it is good to discharge the responsibility, that this also falls on schools ”, adds Arana.
“I think it is good to discharge responsibilities, that the schools also assume them”
The Donostia School Mobility Action Plan contemplates the drafting of a manifesto in which the main conclusions will be collected obtained in the elaboration of the aforementioned plan and is proposed “as a result of the agreement of all the agents involved in the matter”. The document will have to be subject to revisions with the periodicity that is decided.
The drafting of the manifesto corresponds to the schools, with the collaboration of the City Council and the Basque Government.
The elaboration of this manifesto does not concern Arana due to its complexity, the complex comes “when you get down to the specific case”.
The creation of the figure of the mobility manager, which also corresponds to the school and which has the same institutional support, is another of the points that are considered, this being a key figure for the application and monitoring of the Plan from the schools. It will be this manager, whose training will be assumed by the City Council, who will be in charge of controlling whether the decisions adopted by the Motor Group of the plan are complied with and whether the agreements of the Mobility Board are executed, among other tasks, such as acting as a link with the Administration and other agents involved.
Also This document will lay the foundations for updating the treatment of road safety education and school mobility in schools, providing training in both Primary and Secondary Education. This action will be promoted and delivered by the City Council.
The fourth action seeks promote the improvement of school environments and itineraries, analyzing the existing possibilities in this matter, activating them when they are viable and prioritizing actions on school routes.
It also sets out, among other objectives, promote “the modes of transport and habits of active mobility”, reducing the use of private vehicles and promoting “sustainable, active, safe and autonomous mobility in school trips”. To achieve this goal, it is very important to educate children so that they can move on foot or by bike independently when they are mature enough to do so.
The sixth action is the creation of a school mobility badge, a corporate image that gives visibility to the school path and that can be used in billboards or markings on the sidewalk that help identify the itineraries. Another way to give visibility to the project in the neighborhoods is by creating the pedestrian card.
Finally, an action that, like the two previous ones, has to be promoted from the centers, is the development of a Communication Plan It has to have two aspects: internal and external.
As Pilar Arana explains, the definition and development of the set of actions is somewhat delayed as the SUMP, which should have been approved on 1 January, has still not been approved.
“We were also waiting to have the data from the Mobility study at the Basque Country level, which were published on April 3,” he adds.
With all this data on the table, the City Council will prepare the draft of the SUMP, “which will be approved by the next Government”. “We understand that it could be there for the fall,” he added.
For this reason, the School Mobility Action Plan is behind schedule, something that is also partly explained by the fact that the competent municipal area has been extremely busy in Attend the tender for European funds that allow progress in the application of the necessary technology to “change the flow of vehicles, define low emission zones” or the systems that will allow certain vehicles to access the city center and others to be diverted.
“Nothing stands still, but the SUMP collects what city we want and how to get there”a process that will be developed for years, abounds, and for which it is essential to have managed to “put on the street” the necessary technology.
As in a chain, each link connects to the next, so school planning will still have to wait.
“The speed at which it is done will depend on factors such as the resources that are going to be allocated or the degree of collaboration of the centers”, has highlighted Arana.
“By disseminating the plan and including it in the SUMP, we hope that the philosophy of the document will take hold, the centers working with the City Council for the application of different measures, without always passing the ball to the Consistory”, he assures.
“When works together improvements are always foundalthough sometimes the definitive solution is not found”, concludes Arana.
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