Route to school still unsafe

Route to school still unsafe
By S Praveen Dhaneshkar, DH News Service, Bangalore:
While road users fume about the lack of motorable space, school managements continue to block entry of vehicles into their premises. The police, meanwhile, claim they are helpless.


Vehicles parked around schools in the Central Business District have for long been choking roads during peak hours. While road users fume about the lack of motorable space, school managements continue to block entry of vehicles into their premises. The police, meanwhile, claim they are helpless.

In spite of the Safe Route To School (SRTS) initiative started more than two years ago by the Bangalore City Police and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the problem continues.

While the initiative received an encouraging response when introduced as an alternative to private vehicles ferrying kids to school, it did not yield the expected results later.

While about 50 educational institutions in Bangalore are utilising the services of 245 BMTC buses under SRTS, many parents continue to prefer using private transport like cars, two-wheelers, tempo/maxi-cabs and auto-rickshaws to drop/pick-up their children.

A senior police officer said while the primary reason to introduce the SRTS was to provide a safe and alternative mode of public transport, lack of support from parents resulted in the project not yielding expected results.

“The situation is bad during the rush hours, between 8 am and 8.30 am and 3 pm and 3.30 pm. We do admit that that enforcement is not up to the mark. We are facing numerous constraints, including inadequate manpower.

The responsibility to relieve congestion also lies with the school authorities and parents. They could allow parking of vehicles into their premises and use BMTC buses,” said the officer.

Police sources added that Safe Route to School should be institutionalised, to encourage parents to make use of public transport.

WHAT THE PRINCIPALS SAY...?

We are aware of traffic jams around schools. One way of solving this is to encourage use of school buses and BMTC vehicles. At present, we are not part of this initiative. We are open to examining the possibility of hiring buses in future. Allowing vehicles into our premises may be an option, but the school has been built on a higher plane, making it impossible for vehicles to park.

Sister Preeti, Principal,
Sacred Heart Girls High School

What is of paramount importance? Is it safety of the child at the school or allowing parking in our premises? We had recommended a viable solution to the parents and the police: a change of timings, from 7.30 am to 2.00 pm.

A survey was done at our school to seek feedback from parents on this suggestion. We received a positive response from 70 per cent of the parents. This solution, if accepted, could reduce traffic to a large extent. Better traffic management and no-parking zones outside schools are other measures.

Colonel John Ellis, Principal,
Bishop Cotton Boys School

Our school does not directly contribute to inconvenience caused by parking of vehicles outside our premises. We have six school buses, apart from another six hired from BMTC as part of the SRTS. The onus also lies with the traffic police to strictly enforce the ‘No Parking’ zone of 200 metres from the school premises. We also encourage public transport and car pooling. Allowing parking of vehicles inside our premises is ruled out.

Ms Franklin, Principal,
Bishop Cotton Girls School