Case Study: Safety Factors Analysis of Micro-Location of the Entrance to a Primary School in an Old Urban Area in the City of Zagreb, Croatia

Older primary schools in Croatia are frequently located in densely built older settlement cores. Micro-locations surrounding school entrances are often not the result of prior urban or traffic planning; instead, they are retroactively managed through infrastructure and signalling interventions. Pupils participate in traffic as pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter users, or passengers in cars, school buses, or public buses. The proposed integrated research approach includes: an online survey of pupils’ travel behaviour, systematic safety assessments of entrance micro-locations using the iRAP methodology, as well as field measurements and in-depth analysis of vehicle speeds, traffic flow and structure. For classes organised in two shifts, an online survey of parents (for classroom-based education) and pupils (for subject-based education) covered 56% of the pupil population. Because pupils’ travel mode is the factor most susceptible to influence through infrastructure improvements, statistical analysis was conducted using the χ2-test for the purpose of investigating relationships with the other three traffic-relevant determinants: school age group, pupils’ sex, and distance from school. Approximately three-quarters of pupils live less than 2 km from the typical school. If peak vehicle traffic does not coincide with the peak of pupil arrivals and departures during the overlap of two school shifts, part of the traffic on the school-access street may be unrelated to direct school-access activities. Vehicle-type restrictions and one-way traffic operation should be considered as measures to improve pupils’ safety. The proposed groups of measures for improving pupils’ safety include: (i) educational workshops for pupils, parents and teachers; (ii) reconstruction of school entrance micro-locations; (iii) targeted interventions in the traffic environment within a 2 km perimeter.