Kidical Mass: Alliance wants to increase safety for children
Streets for everyone!” demands the action group Kidical Mass. At the weekend, more than 300 children and adults cycled through Offenbach to demonstrate for child-safe cycle paths. The action alliance had called for a children’s bike demonstration worldwide for May 5th to 7th. According to the Hesse Traffic Club, around 1,500 cyclists took part in Hesse, far more than in previous years.
According to press spokeswoman Simone Kraus, accidents involving children and a lack of political attention to child safety on the road are giving rise to a “mobility revolution”.
“Politicians don’t even have the children on their screens when they plan,” says Kraus. The alliance calls for road traffic law in which vulnerable road users have the right of way, especially children.
There must also be a speed limit of 30, preferably throughout the city, but at least in the vicinity of schools and kindergartens. According to the alliance, most accidents involving children happen on the way to school, before and after class.
The city of Paris is a role model, there cars are completely banned on school streets. More and more streets in front of schools would become permanent pedestrian zones. Paris goes one step further than Vienna. According to the “Vienna model”, school streets may not be driven on by car 30 minutes before school starts and after the end of the lesson. The action alliance is also demonstrating for wide and protected cycle paths. A width of 1.80 to 2 meters is ideal, says press spokeswoman Anja Zeller from the Hesse Traffic Club.
A structural separation of the bike path and the road must also be implemented. Simone Kraus from Kidical Mass cites Copenhagen as an example. There, curbs mostly separate the zones for cyclists from car traffic. Junctions where streets meet at a 90-degree angle are also desirable, says Kraus. The so-called “protective crossings” enable road users to have a better view.
Basically, the internationally organized alliance wants to ensure that children are safe and independent on the road. The previous expansion of cycle paths in Germany has not led to fewer accidents, says Kraus. The short-term decrease in accidents is corona-related.
Offenbach took part in the demonstration for the fifth time and, according to the traffic club, recorded a steady increase in demonstrators. Twice a year, Kidical Mass calls for children’s bicycle demonstrations worldwide. The next action is from September 22nd to 24th. More people around the world took part last weekend than over two weekends last year.
More information about the alliance is available at: kinderaufsrad.org/
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