Bratislava is lagging behind in everything. Evaluated European cities according to how safe they are for
No more words, just acts, are asked by activists.
One child dies every day on the roads of the European Union and eighteen are injured. In Europe, 1200 children die each year in connection with air pollution.
« This is completely inadmissible, » says Barbara Stoll of Clean Cities Campaign, which has come up with an evaluation like European cities for children.
The safety of children in the city is crucial in the evaluation. The ranking in which Clean Cities Campaign evaluated 36 seats in different parts of Europe and different sizes were based on three indicators: School streets, separate cycle paths and speed limit to thirty.
BRATISLAVA was placed in 27th place.
Although the capital has tried to introduce school streets at selected schools in recent years and is gradually building a network of separate cycle routes, it is not so far for a good ranking.
According to the evaluation, school streets have only two elementary schools out of 131, the share of separate cycle routes is 12.5 percent and streets with a reduced speed of 36 percent, which in the overall evaluation brought Bratislava D.
Paris was best placed, followed by Amsterdam and Antwerp. The most school streets have London, the largest share of the streets with a speed limit to 30 km/h has Paris, which also has the most separate cycle routes.
Until recently, Paris was not one of the safest cities. According to the evaluators, its placement at the head of the ranking shows that the change can come very quickly.
Publication The evaluation of children friendly cities was presented on Wednesday at the Start with Children conference organized by the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava and the City of Bratislava.
No city has won the best grade
The international non -profit organization Clean Cities Campaign in the evaluation did not award the best grade A. It is mainly for the missing school streets.
Bratislava created the first Školská Street in Nevädzová in Ružinov. The driveway to the school was closed for motor vehicles on weekdays from 7.30 to 8.00 when children come to school. As part of the project, the City for Children Bratislava has also made other modifications around schools in several city districts.
In the number of school streets, London leads, where there are more than 500 such streets with limited car transport in front of elementary schools. There are a total of more than a thousand such streets in evaluated cities.
« School streets are becoming the norm, » said Barbara Stoll.
In addition to increasing the safety of children, it also reduces emissions. In addition, walking to school helps children to catch up with lack of movement.
Reducing speed and separate cycle routes
Paris, Brussels, Lyon, Amsterdam, Bristol and Madrid have a maximum speed of 30 km/h to more than 80 percent of their roads. It is up to 89 percent in Paris.
Bratislava is expanding the zones with limited speeds along the city along with the launching of the parking policy, as well as around schools. Slovak cities are very careful in the speed limit of speed.
Cities that withdrew the speed to thirty do not regret. In Slovakia they go cautiously Read
When the speed is reduced, the number of car and deaths decreases significantly. This is because the drivers are to respond more time when driving slower, when impacting at a speed of 30 km/h, the likelihood of death is several times lower than when driving fifty.
Paris is also a leader in the share of separate cycle routes, which make up almost half of the length of their road network. Mayor Anne Hidalgo used a period of pandemic to create them. Dozens of originally temporary lanes have become permanent and hundreds of more were added to them.
Bratislava missed an important time, says cycloactivists Read
In Bratislava, the length of separate cycling routes accounts for 12.5 percent of the road network according to data.
« For healthy and separate children, it is necessary to create a separate cycling infrastructure at a much higher pace and calm car transport, » says Dan Kollár, President Cyclo -Coalition, which works with Clean Cities Campaing.
From speech to actions
At last year’s first year of the Start with Children conference by one of Gil Peñalos, it was said that we had to move from speech to actions. This message was commemorated from the cyclo -coalition by posting the banner with a quote during the opening speech of the Mayor at this year’s conference.
During the Start with Children Conference (Source: Marek Gardener)The mayor was also addressed by concerned mothers. During the opening speech, a member of the civic association stood up with a large heart -shaped inscription « Start with Children Here ».
Worried mothers alert For several problematic places in Bratislava, which endanger the health of children and the city does nothing with them.
During the Start with Children conference (source: concerned mothers)« Mayor Vallo has launched many good projects and reforms that we appreciate, but the city lags behind in the fulfillment of some action plans and strategic documents, » says Ivana Nemethová.
It recalls that only about a quarter of measures are fulfilled from the action plan for the development of cycling and pedestrian transport.
« Therefore, we ask the city management to intensify their efforts for the health of our children, » he adds.
The worried mothers draw attention to the air pollution in the city center at Mickiewicz, Šancová or Štefániková, the situation at the Old Town, which has not changed significantly even after the death of five people after the car crashed into the bus stop.
