Sixty eight percent of traffic passing County Roscommon school exceed speed limit
An action day was held recently at Ballyleague NS to raise awareness on the benefits of travelling to school in an environmentally friendly way.
Sixty eight percent of traffic passing Ballyleague NS exceed the speed limit of 50km/h, a recent survey found.
The speed survey was carried out by Green Schools’ Travel Officer Ciaran Hussey and members of the school’s Green-School committee using a speed gun.
Recently an action day was held at the school to raise awareness on the benefits of travelling to school in an environmentally friendly way whilst also highlighting the lack of safe walking and cycling facilities available to students who wish to travel to school in a greener way.
The idea behind their action day was to celebrate the students’ enthusiasm and willingness to embrace active travel while also highlighting the obstacles they face if they were to walk or cycle to school daily.
The school is located on the edge of Lanesborough on the N63. Due to the volume, speed, and behaviour of traffic it is currently unsafe for students to consider climate friendly forms of transport.
Earlier in the year Mr Hussey, the Ballyleague NS Green-School committee and teachers conducted an audit on road safety outside the school and approaching routes. It was noted that the Inver filling Station and the Church of the Holy Rosary would be ideal for park and stride locations. However, there is currently no safe pedestrian crossing on the busy N63 or the R371 to allow such an initiative to happen. Staff and visitor parking outside the school grounds are also an area of concern, particularly during morning drop off and afternoon pick up times, when parents park either side of the road and on footpaths causing congestion and poor visibility of oncoming traffic.
“Having safe pedestrian and cycling facilities for the students of Ballyleague would have multiple benefits with improved health and well-being for active students, community engagement and improved air quality outside the school,” said Mr Hussey.
“On their day of action, it was notable that there was a huge reduction in congestion outside the school as the students walked from the two park and stride locations,” said Mr Hussey.
