The new school year in Pašilaičiai started very colorfully. On the section of Medeina Street, where the infrastructure pilot changes of the international mobility project “Streets for All” are being implemented, road signs inspired by drawings of primary school students were installed. To encourage the attention of all road users, the road surface in front of crossings and paths for pedestrians and cyclists were also painted in various colors.
In order to interest as many Vilnius residents of all ages in the topic of sustainable mobility as possible, at the beginning of the summer, primary school students (aged 6–10) were invited to participate in a road sign drawing competition. In their works, the children depicted what safe movement means to them, road traffic rules, their observance, etc.
Several dozen drawings were turned into road signs by Rusnė (9 years old), Meida (10 years old), Karolis (8 years old) and Markos (9 years old). In them, the children depicted animals safely crossing a pedestrian crossing: a zebra, a hare, a duck with ducklings, and sent a message to drivers asking them to take their time, be careful, and look out for schoolchildren and kindergarteners on the road or nearby.
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The authors of the best road sign drawings will be awarded prizes from Vilnius City Municipality and the project “Streets for All”. The winners and all participants of the competition will be contacted personally.
“The changes being implemented on Medeina Street are intended to ensure, first and foremost, the safety of children attending educational institutions located here. Therefore, at the beginning of the summer, the project team decided to entrust the drawing of road signs that would undoubtedly be noticed by car drivers to schoolchildren.”
“Our team was surprised by the children’s creativity, but we also noticed something disturbing in the drawings. A significant number of the drawings depict pedestrian crossings, which may mean that children still feel unsafe when crossing the street in designated areas,” says Birutė Jatautaitė, Vilnius team leader of the “Streets for All” project.
B. Jatautaitė adds that children are active and distracted, which is why they are less attentive both on the festive day of the new school year and throughout the month: “It can be expected that before running across the road or in any other traffic situation, they will not necessarily stop to assess whether it is safe or whether it is better to stop and wait for the car to pass.”
Therefore, at this time of year, it is recommended to pay more attention not only to children’s education – to remind them how to cross the street safely, to look both ways, and to cross the crossing only when vehicles have stopped.
Solutions that increase traffic safety
Other changes to improve traffic safety have also been implemented on this section of Medeina Street – the trajectories of traffic lanes are more clearly separated by “bits”, pedestrian crossings are marked with lights, and the part of the roadway in front of them is painted with colored circles. Members of the project team note that this is not just a decorative element.
“The purpose of the colored circles is to visually highlight a place where drivers must be especially careful, reduce the sense of transitivity of the street, and encourage intuitive speed reduction. Such a solution is especially suitable near schools, kindergartens, and other places with many pedestrians and children.”
The circle motif was chosen as an easily recognizable visual element that can be applied in various urban spaces. Therefore, similar marking principles are planned to be used in other places in Vilnius, where we want to clearly show the driver: the street environment is changing here, here you need to slow down and pay more attention to the most vulnerable road users,” say the experts.
As the area of color-coded movement zones on the territory of Medeina Primary School was extended, bright drawings also appeared on the paths for pedestrians and cyclists.
Earlier this year, a green space was created on Medeinos Street, replacing illegal parking in the green zone. Excess hard surfaces were dismantled, greenery was installed, and a recreation area was created for residents of all ages and guests of the Pašilaičiai microdistrict.
The project team emphasizes that education alone is not enough – a safe, comfortable and adapted environment also changes residents’ habits. Therefore, when it comes to sustainable mobility, it is important not only to educate residents and drivers about the benefits of traveling on foot, by bicycle or by public transport, but also to create conditions for implementing these choices on a daily basis.
“Physical changes to the environment make it safer and more convenient to cross the street for both children arriving at educational institutions and all residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Only by coordinating infrastructure solutions with residents, and at the same time educating them, can we create a safer and more sustainable environment for daily movement,” says the project team.
