The Municipality of Athens is taking an important step towards creating a more inclusive and safe city by launching the pilot implementation of “smart” school crossings. This new initiative focuses on ensuring equal access to school for all children , regardless of disability, origin or socioeconomic status.
Safe streets for all children
“Our roads must stop being danger zones,” said the Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas. The aim is to enhance road safety around schools, with innovative infrastructure that does not require constant surveillance and acts preventively and universally , protecting all pedestrians , with particular care for children.
Technology at the service of equality
“Smart” crossings incorporate technological and physical features that ensure:
- Greater visibility , critical for the safety of children with sensory or motor difficulties
- Limiting vehicle speeds , protecting particularly vulnerable groups
- Controlled and pedestrian-friendly environment , facilitating the movement of people with disabilities or parents with strollers
Inclusion in practice
The intervention enhances passive safety and works as part of a broader vision: a city where all students – without exclusions – can reach school safely and with dignity . Children belonging to vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, refugee or migrant children, or children living in areas of increased traffic risk, particularly benefit from the implementation of these solutions.
Athens makes a difference
The application was launched at the 15th Primary School of Ampelokipi, with the prospect of expanding to all Municipal Communities of the city , contributing to an inclusive school life and to neighborhoods that respect human diversity .
