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Children given cameras to identify school commute risks

It is hoped that the data collected will provide information on how infrastructure could be improved
It is hoped that the data collected will provide information on how infrastructure could be improved

Children at a primary school in Dublin are being given cameras to wear as they cycle or walk to school as part of a new citizen science project.

The recordings captured by the children are being used to identify any high-risk parts of their journey.

On her first day with a camera attached to her scooter, Síobha recorded a van driving through a red light at a pedestrian crossing on her way to school.

The green man had shown, signalling it was safe to cross.

"It was green and we were about to cross and it broke the lights just after it turned green," she said.

Síobha's mother Aoife McGough explained that this is not their first incident at the crossing.

"My middle girl had a bad experience a while ago," Ms McGough said.

Her daughter Tuiren was hit by a cyclist.

"I was crossing with the green man, and then a cyclist crashed into me. Then I had to go to the doctor because I broke my thumb," Tuiren said.

Professor for Smart and Sustainable Cities Francesco Pilla has given out 15 cameras to families at the school.


Watch: Children given cameras to identify school commute risks


"These cameras, the way it works, is that it can be clipped on a bike, or on a scooter, or a child’s helmet...It has also a light so kids are more visible.

"And the point is that it collects videos when the kids travel to school from their own perspective, their own eye."

He hopes the data will inform policy makers by showing what needs to be fixed to provide children with safe routes to their schools.

"If there are near misses, if there are crashes, how they use the infrastructure, then the data will come to me.

"We will analyze it and try to connect what we see, to poor infrastructure or conflicts with other road users."

Mr Pilla said the data will provide information on how the infrastructure could be improved.

Harold's Cross Educate Together National School Principal Aoife O'Sullivan said the school has been campaigning for more safe crossings for their pupils.

Harold's Cross Educate Together NS Principal Aoife O'Sullivan said the school has advocated for a traffic warden

"It's something that our parents have advocated for with the city council for the last number of years, for a traffic warden.

"A large majority of the roads around do not have pedestrian access, especially going from Leinster Road, and this is quite a challenge for parents, especially with young kids on bikes and scooters as they commute."

Gordon Cummins, who walks to school with his son Tadhg, said: "As soon as we get to the junction with Leinster Road and Harold’s Cross Road, there's no traffic lights, so we have to scoot along a little bit, and basically peek between the cars.

"We have to look between the cars and see what's coming to basically cross the road.

"So, you know, it's kind of like every day you're teaching the kids how to walk safely.

"And yet, every day, going to school, we're literally breaking the rules to pop between the cars to make sure nothing's coming."

Francesco Pilla hopes the evidence collected will push the council to take action

Francesco Pilla, whose own children attend the school said his past experience with citizen science projects, which enable people to gather data in their own environment, has shown the projects can be an effective tool when campaiging for change.

He said there is not much data at the moment about road safety.

"So what we are doing is that we are showing them evidence that there is an issue around this school, but not just around the school, around many schools."

Mr Pilla said he hopes the evidence collected will push the council to take action.

The research at Harold’s Cross is a pilot scheme and he hopes to engage with other schools across the country to give out cameras and gather more data.

That can be collated with information gathered by other projects such as the active travel collision tracker set up by the local newspaper The Dublin Inquirer and the news website irishcycle.com.

"We are actually building on top of the collision tracker.

"Hopefully, the data that we are collecting will actually go also on the collision tracker, and that will allow us to identify hot spots.

"Because what usually happens with the road accidents is that they tend to happen in the same location.

"So you will see clusters, and that's because of poor infrastructure, and infrastructure that is prone to create conflicts between different road users."

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