Good practice:

Elevated road crossings outside of schools for the protection of pupils

According to accident and speed data, road crossings used every day by thousands of pupils were identified as problematic in terms of road safety in the Municipality of Trikala, Greece. Thus, in order to tackle this issue, elevated crossings were implemented to protect pupils and encourage active mobility to/from schools. 3 interventions have already been constructed in the city center and suburban villages (Megalochori, Rizario), while 2 more will be implemented in next months. All of them aligned with the national and European technical guidelines. Horizontal and vertical signage was also placed in the surrounding area to inform car drivers.
This is a modern practice which, without disturbing the movement of vehicles with a traffic light, achieves to reduce car speed effectively. By simply applying a height difference along with reducing the road width by widening the sidewalks, cars necessarily slow down while passing through. It is stressed that it refers to the elevation of the whole junction at the height level of sidewalks with a ramp of 10% slope, so as to be smooth both for public transport to pass them and facilitate pedestrians and people with disabilities. It is important to keep the road accessible to public transport and all users as well.
The colors are an important element in this case. The whole junction should be red, while the ramp should be in bright yellow in order to draw the drivers’ attention when accessing the crossing to reduce their speed on time.

The budget needed for the design and construction was 40,000 to 60,000 Euro per crossing, depending on the total intervention area which varied from 300m2 to 450m2. It was covered by national funds. Human resources of the Dept. of Technical Services of the Municipality of Trikala were involved.

Since the implementation of the three elevated crossings so far, no incidents have occurred there. Further evaluation will take place during the next years in order to validate the success of the measure. The feedback received from the residents was very positive. They deeply appreciated such an infrastructure intervention both for their kids' safety since they use these roads every day, and for their own safety as pedestrians in the city as well. The results were immediate on people's feelings.

The challenge of the elevated crossing in Megalochori is the noise caused by heavy trucks, often during night hours, which use this part of the former National Road Network, although they shouldn’t! The Municipality tries to divert truck traffic and force them to use other by-passes, as they should.

This practice promotes pupils' road safety by reducing car speed effectively, while at the same time, it enhances the safety feeling of parents to be more confident and allow their kids to walk or cycle to school independently. Both these factors are very important towards achieving the desired shift to sustainable mobility and environmentally friendly transport to schools which are two key goals in all European cities. Thus, it is considered a very interesting practice because it demonstrates how local Authorities can provide safer infrastructure with limited resources needed.

In conclusion, it is a rather low-cost infrastructure intervention with immediate impact, that can be easily implemented in every interested EU region, as long as the national and European technical guidelines are met.