Girona City Council will launch a plan to extend safe school environments throughout the city and, where possible, gain play areas on the road.
The first action will take place in Bruguera, where the council will permanently cut off traffic on Artillers Street.
The desire is to do it before Christmas. Where possible, cars will be pulled around schools; and where it is not possible, safe itineraries will be enabled.
In parallel, the Deputy Mayor Cristina Andreu and the Councilor for Education, Queralt Vila, explained that the project also wants to create "healthy and play environments" next to the centers, enabling public squares where there is now asphalt for children to play. "and families and neighbors make neighborhood life."
The plan to extend safe school environments throughout the city is part of the government team's desire to move towards a friendlier Girona.
"Currently, roads occupy too large an area of public space, and we want to move towards a Girona that allows us to reach door to door easily, whether on foot, by bus or by bicycle," explained the Deputy Mayor for Urban Transformation, Cristina Andreu.
The project that the City Council is now launching wants to "give continuity and accelerate" those measures that were already promoted during the last term to promote safe school routes (in places such as Cassià Costal or Marta Mata). But not only that, but he also wants to go further; and in all places where possible, create public squares next to the different infant and primary schools.
The Councilor for Education, Queralt Vila, explains that the project has three basic axes: creating safe, healthy and play school environments. From the outset, the objective is to "give autonomy to children and their families, and make it easier for them to walk to the centers."
"We often find ourselves with a fish biting its tail, because in schools where it is not easy to walk, parents opt for the car, and that aggravates the situation; what we want is to break the dynamic," he says. Queralt Villa.
For this reason, the council will analyze case by case and, where possible, will permanently cut off traffic on one of the streets leading to the school. And if this is not possible, it will enable safe itineraries for children.
Initially, the first center where this plan will be implemented is the Bruguera school (located at the junction between Jaume I, Calle Artillers and Calle Bonastruc de Porta).
The City Council will completely block the passage of vehicles along Artillers Street. "If it can be, before Christmas," said Cristina Andreu.
The council also plans to implement the same measure in the school of Santa Eugènia (the Yellow school)) by freeing the road from Nostra Senyora de la Salut street, and in the Ágora school in the neighborhood of Sant Narcís.
In this case, however, the deputy mayor has said that here "the formula" that will be adopted for the cutting of Ramon Berenguer promenade - the one in front of the school - must be studied more thoroughly (because lines pass along this promenade bus and we will have to see how they are redirected).
Regarding the other two legs of the plan, those that refer to healthy and play environments, the Councilor for Education has said that the objective of the council will be to "reduce pollution around schools." Not only the environment, but also the acoustics, because it has been shown that "they do not favor children's learning."
Finally, Queralt Vila explained that the project, which will be carried out throughout the mandate, also wants to "create a public square" in front of all those primary schools where this is possible. That is, take advantage of those streets that will be closed to traffic to reconvert them into spaces for "spontaneous play" for children, and allow "both families and neighbors to carry out both social and community life."
For this reason, the deputy mayor of Urban Transformation has explained that, once the cars have been removed from these streets, the council will carry out "tactical urban planning" work, rethinking how they can be converted into squares, also taking into account "criteria "ecological transition" (for example, including shaded areas).
Cristina Andreu has stressed that the plan to accelerate safe school environments throughout Girona is done hand in hand with the educational community (center directors, AFA) and neighborhood associations.
The deputy mayor has also said that the calendar for carrying out the different proposals will depend on each case; that is, the situation of the schools. "In all those in which it is feasible to do it quickly, but this is how it will be done," she concluded.
