If the moral test of government is how it treats the most vulnerable, then road danger is a miserable indictment of the British administration.
Take for example the road featured in the video below. It is crossed by hundreds of children every day and yet no no provision is made for their safety. It is classed by local authority Wandsworth Council as as a ‘priority 3 situation’, which means no significant redesign is deemed necessary.
We took our inflatable pop-up zebra crossing to Boundaries Road earlier this week to help parents and children protest about the road danger they face every day. Over the course of one hour, we witnessed countless children squeezing past cars and being forced back onto the pavement. Most of the drivers, many of whom were ferrying children to school, were reluctant to stop for kids trying to cross the road.
Watch as local parent Jo Rigby explains the desperate need for a safe crossing.
What is a pop-up zebra crossing?
When we were approached by a group of parents in London whose request for a zebra crossing at a road traffic collision black spot outside their local infant school had been turned down on grounds of cost, we went about building one ourselves as cheaply as possible.
The result was a pop-up zebra crossing that could be erected in less than two minutes. And with no need to consider drainage, the excavation of existing pavement, disposal of material, new kerbing and paving, anti-skid surfacing, road markings, traffic signs, electrical connections and pillars, the total cost came to £50 – considerably less than the £114,000 quoted by the Highways Agency.
Faced with coverage of the campaign in the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and Metro newspapers and on numerous radio stations, the local authority quickly installed the much-needed real zebra crossing.
If you are facing a similar challenge trying to get a zebra crossing for your school, please get in touch.
Funding campaigns like the pop-up zebra is easy
Not only are we ethical, we campaign for sustainable transport. Sometimes that means protesting until a school gets the zebra crossing they’ve been refused, or running 60 roadshows this year to encourage people out of their cars, or fixing bicycles for free. Supporting this work is easy – you simply have to take out cycle insurance with us, cover that just happens to be excellent.
Unlike other insurers we never devalue your bike. And if you ride a carbon bike, rest assured we will never have a cracked frame repaired – we will always replace your bike with a new one. How many other insurers can say that? Find out more
..and it’s not just cycle insurance that we offer. We provide home insurance, cycle insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover – all while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
Chris
It’s an utter disgrace. Though traffic needs to be banned (rat-running needs to stop).
The children in buggies are being exposed to high levels NOx and particulates.
Anthony Rogers
I note Jo Rigby refers to the nearby independent school traffic. I work in a large sixth form college which serves much of Sussex and there is both an independent and state primary nearby; the independent school always seems to generate a lot traffic, much less so the state primary and sixth form institutions. I wonder if any research has been done into these travel to school journeys, and if independent cohorts are more likely to use private motorised transport?
Tim Earl
If it only costs £50, why not let them keep it? Then they can put it up every day.
I’d be happy for my membership fees to fund this.
The ETA
The first prototype cost £50 – the inflatable version you see in the film cost us around £2,000 to have made.