Road safety interventions for unsafe school zones led by local actions winner

Local actions winner, Aldo Gonzalez Barrera and his organization Liga Paetonal, have successfully identified five cities with risky crossings for students on their way to school and have begun to lead interventions to address dangerous risk factors for his project, Retorno Seguro a Clases or Safe Back to School Challenge. 

The schools were identified based on the analysis of road crashes that regularly happened within the school zones of the cities. Through the Retorno Seguro a Clases, Aldo and his team aim to create better city designs that would guarantee the safety of students on their way to school. 

To ensure the involvement of the community in the project, Aldo and his team created short videos to introduce the Safe Return to School Challenge. They also launched an open call for youth volunteers in the area to give them a chance to get involved with the implementation of the project. They were able to build six teams of youth activists from Pachuca, Colima, Culiacán, Villahermosa, Ensenada and Tijuana

Currently, Aldo and his team have completed four training sessions that focused on road safety, city design, and road assessment. The team has organized seven “diagnostic walks” to observe and assess the school zones in their community. 

Because of the pandemic, most students in Mexico have not returned to regular classes. However, because of the training, Liga Paetonal and the teams of youth volunteers were able to gather statistical data through their diagnostic walks.