LEARN! Manual Example #17
This example is about making safe zones around primary schools and shows advantages and disadvantages from a top-down approach.
Related Step
Implementation
Age Group
6 to 12 year olds
“Hjertesone” (Heart Zone) is a national initiative and a collaboration between the Norwegian Council for Road Safety, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Directorate of Health, the police, the Cyclists’ Association, the Environmental Agency, and the Parent Committee for primary and lower secondary education. All the actors are dedicated to promoting children’s safety and health on the way to school.
The purpose of Heart Zone is to make the area around schools safer for the pupils. This is done primarily through behavioural and attitude measures that reduce parental driving and increase the proportion of children walking and cycling to school. Traffic safety and mobility education is a natural part of the project. The target is to help increase road safety around the school and improve the health of the pupils. Children who walk and cycle to school are physically active, which is good for public health and learning – as well as good for the environment.
An example of how the heart zone can be marked on a map, although the zone is not always formed like a heart as pictured. The red hearts indicate drop off places.
There is no ready-made recipe for a Heart Zone. Measures must be adapted in a natural and sensible way with respect to the traffic environment and the opportunities that exist at each school. A Heart Zone is not a complete product, but a process consisting of small and large measures. Some measures take a short time to put in place, while others can be more demanding and take longer to implement.
There is no need for a formal political decision in the municipality to establish Heart Zone schools. Each school can start work on their safe zone independently. Experience shows that there are both pros and cons in making political decisions to establish the Heart Zone at all schools. Although political decisions have been made, the municipalities say that they mainly emphasise behavioural and attitude measures. Minor physical measures and regulations on the road network can supplement the work on attitudes.
From two Norwegian reports we know:
Advantages of a top-down approach might be:
- Creates predictability and clearer frameworks for the whole project and especially the responsibility of the municipality;
- Social equalisation – effort and resources do not depend on the affluence or resourcefulness of parents or school management;
- Makes the municipality accountable;
- Sets standards and requirements for parties involved;
- Creates opportunities to carry out thorough preparatory work where one looks at problem areas and challenges;
- Possibility to ensure solid professional content/solid competence (for example, by preparing guidance materials etc).
Disadvantages of a top-down approach might be:
- Schools could lose ownership of the project;
- The measure can be perceived as an order, as opposed to being engaging and making your own decisions;
- Not all schools need to focus on this issue, which can lead to unnecessary use of resources;
- A general decision might lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations;
- Diverts attention away from attitude-creating measures, and gives unrealistic expectations of many costly physical measures.
The Heart Zones project was presented during the 2022 European Traffic Education Seminar.
Update: Knowledge based on the effects of Heart Zone
Several evaluations have looked at the effects of Heart Zones. More information on the results can be found in this best practice example on the Heart Zone project’s implementation and evaluations.
More Information
LEARN! Flash 3 Example: The evaluation of the Heart Zone project.
Norconsult (2020), Hjertesone arbeidsdokument, Bergen.
Norconsult (2019), Evaluering av Hjertesoneprosjektet ved Øren skole I Drammen commune.