RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pilot study to evaluate school safety zone built environment interventions
JF Injury Prevention
JO Inj Prev
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 243
OP 248
DO 10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044299
VO 28
IS 3
A1 Linda Rothman
A1 Rebecca Ling
A1 Brent E Hagel
A1 Colin Macarthur
A1 Alison K Macpherson
A1 Ron Buliung
A1 Pamela Fuselli
A1 Andrew William Howard
YR 2022
UL http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/28/3/243.abstract
AB Background School safety zones were created in 2017 under the City of Toronto’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan. This pilot study examined the effect of built environment interventions on driver speeds, active school transportation (AST) and dangerous driving.Methods Interventions were implemented at 34 schools and 45 matched controls (2017–2019). Drivers travelling over the speed limit of >30 km/hour and 85th percentile speeds were measured using pneumatic speed tubes at school frontages. Observers examined AST and dangerous driving at school arrival times. Repeated measures beta and multiple regression analyses were used to study the intervention effects.Results Most schools had posted speed limits of 40 km/hour (58%) or ≥50 km/hour (23%). A decrease in drivers travelling over the speed limit was observed at intervention schools post-intervention (from 44% to 40%; OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.96). Seventy-one per cent of drivers travelled >30 km/hour and the 85th percentile speed was 47 km/hour at intervention schools, with no change in either postintervention. There were no changes in speed metrics in the controls. AST increased by 5% (OR 1.22, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.54) at intervention schools. Reductions in dangerous driving were observed at all schools.Conclusions Posted speed limits were >30 km/hour at most schools and high proportions of drivers were travelling above the speed limits. There were reductions in drivers exceeding the speed limit and in dangerous driving, and modest increased AST post intervention. Bolder interventions to slow traffic are required to effectively reduce speeding around schools, which may increase safe AST.Data are available in a public, open access repository.