'Stop, look, cross', the new educational pedestrian crossings in school zones

The Department of Public Space has begun this week the work of painting the new pedestrian crossings in school zones, which consist of incorporating three icons and keywords into the existing crossings: 'stop, look, cross'.

The councillor for the department, José Ramón González de Zárate, explained that this signage "has a dual purpose: to teach and educate the little ones about how to use pedestrian crossings and, at the same time, further reinforce safety in the environment of the schools of our city and the sports areas most used by minors”.

De Zárate has reported that "the brigades are already working" in Salt de l'Aigua educational complex -in which seven centres and the Children's Traffic Park are concentrated-, Palau d'Esports l'Illa de Benidorm and on Doctor Severo Ochoa Avenue –where two more schools are located-. "The forecast is that this complementary labelling will be implemented in the environment of all educational centres by the end of next week", he added.

The councillor recalled that "in recent years the City Council has carried out numerous actions aimed at generating safer school itineraries, thus encouraging children and families to travel to schools on foot."

To do this, the size of the sidewalks in the closest streets has been increased and speed bumps have been installed to limit the speed of vehicles circulating in the area. Also, in the case of Els Tolls' school complex, a parking area has been set up so that families travelling by car can drop off and pick up their children in complete safety.

De Zárate has advanced that "in a first phase, the painting of these didactic zebra crossings is focusing on school and sports areas, although the idea is to promote new phases to extend this model to other points that also have a large influx of pedestrians”.

Likewise, it has been pointed out that this action "follows the line of the pedestrian crossings marked with the indication 'look left', aimed at British tourists" and that they are located "in the busiest zebra crossings between Europa Avenue and Rincón de Loix”.