Child-friendly neighbourhoods
Road Safety Community Park, Singapore
Summary
The Road Safety Community Park, Singapore, is a miniature community complete with roads, traffic control devices such as traffic signs and pavement markings, public transportation stops and buildings representing public amenities like restaurants, banks, supermarkets and shops. The park is designed to meet the needs of both the theoretical as well as practical aspects of training on issues of road safety.
Context
Children who live in an urban environment, and in particular in L/MICs, often lack facilities, such as playgrounds, green spaces and parks. A road safety training park can accommodate green space facilities as well as training facilities for children. It is open to students from the age of five to fifteen, as well as to organized youth groups. Its aim is to inculcate in the minds of the children the road safety values and to improve children’s knowledge, skills and behaviour as road users
Transformational measures and activities
The Road Safety Community Park caters to children of all ages. It boasts a mini traffic environment for children to practice and make their road safety skills perfect. Children can role-play as a go-cart driver, pedestrian or cyclist and stop at real pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. Children are taught more about the precautions they should take when on the roads as well as the importance of following traffic rules. Learning to raise their hands while crossing the zebra crossing, reading road signs, using the mini overhead bridge or coming to a stop when the traffic lights turn from orange to red are just a few of the road safety measures children can practice at the park.
Results
The scheme has demonstrated high community engagement while offering opportunities for increased outdoor play for children. A crowdfunding scheme is currently attempting to devep a similar scheme for the Subic Bay Area of the Philippines.
Challenges, opportunities and transferability
This is a solution that requires a large area to be occupied (the proposed site in the Philippines would occupy 1.3 hectares) and is thus a costly solution but it provides a good place to practice road safety rules in spite of space constraints.
In depth
- The Road Safety Community Park [Accessed 4 April 2019].
- The Subic Chidren’s Road Safety Training Park [Accessed 4 April 2019].