Street for Kids: The lethal outrage to a toddler in Madrid reactivates protests to ask for protected faculty environments | Climate and Environment | EUROtoday

Last Sunday, May 11, little Ian, six years outdated, was hit by a automobile on a slim avenue in Usera (Madrid), the place there’s a faculty, and died the following day. That dramatic truth has reactivated protests to ask for protected faculty environments, with fewer vehicles, air pollution and noise. If 5 years in the past they had been channeled by the varsity revolt – which minimize the streets in entrance of the faculties on Friday – now they translate right into a help for the European marketing campaign Street for Kids: The initiative that organizes 550 protests all through Europe, 80 of them in Spain, to which each the youngsters’s faculty and the varsity situated within the place of the final outrage have been added. “It is a shame, until these misfortunes do not happen, the administration does not take us seriously, but they show us that we must continue to protest,” says Yetta Aguado, of a college revolt in Madrid.

Cars trigger quite a few issues in colleges: excessive ranges of air pollution – 99% exceed NO2 ranges really useful by the World Health Organization, in accordance with a current research of Ecologists in Action in 174 facilities. Also issues linked to noise and the dearth of public house, as they occupy a lot of the streets and, generally, even get on the sidewalks, making it troublesome to stroll safely.

The abuses are usually not, then, the one hazard related to site visitors, however they do work as protests catalysts. It was what occurred in 2019 in Barcelona, ​​when a motorist ran over and killed Hugo, a 5 -year -old boy who left his faculty in Barcelona. The outrage of the households germinated within the faculty revolt, which prolonged by colleges within the Catalan capital after which jumped into different cities. In 2021, Maria, six years outdated, was mortally overwhelmed by SUV in Madrid, which prompted the varsity revolt to take quite a lot of power within the capital. In Amsterdam, the loss of life hit of a six -year -old lady in 1972 created a powerful social motion that ended up filling town of motorcycle lanes.

“The majority of the street cuts that are going to occur this Friday were requested for a long time, because it is a European day, but of course the news of the abuse in Usera reinforces us to protest, and also the girl hit by a car in which the director of the Municipal Police of Madrid was going,” says Verónica Martínez, of the varsity revolt. “The pollution produced by cars is also very bad and greatly affects the development of children, but it looks less,” he provides.

The motion remains to be lively in Barcelona. “At first we made biweekly traffic cuts, then we went to monthly, and now we keep them every three months,” says Marc Hurtado, spokesman for the varsity revolt. “We become 50 Barcelona schools, and now they are 15 or 20, but we want to continue calling the attention of this problem,” he continues. At the excessive level, greater than 100 facilities from a number of Spanish cities joined.

In Madrid they’re in a second of reflection. “There are many open fronts and sometimes it seems that it is difficult to get anything, so it is hard to mobilize people. But we want to turn impotence into a dynamic of the protest and that the movement returns more force,” says Aguado.

For now, many facilities have joined Street for teenagerswhich has the identical targets. “It is a European campaign that emerged from the school revolt and that claims open streets for childhood, with more security, less noise and less cars. From 2022 we make two calls a year, in spring and autumn, and this Friday the seventh is celebrated, with 80 appointments throughout Spain and more than 550 in the continent,” says Carmen Duce, coordinator of the marketing campaign in Spain. There will probably be avenue cuts in order that youngsters can play, bicycle and different actions to lift consciousness. “The Zofío Children’s School (on Fornillos Street) and the Republic of Venezuela Colegio (on Cerecinos Street), both in the area where they hit Ian,” they proceed, “he continues.

Corted streets and speed controls

Ana Vázquez has two children, one in the zofío and one in Venezuela, and will participate in the protests. “The outrage has introduced again a priority that already existed. In that avenue the velocity is already restricted to twenty per hour, however it isn’t fulfilled. Many issues may be executed: velocity controls, minimize the road in the course of the entrance and exit of the varsity, change the pavement for cobblestones, set up tall pictures …”. And it sets as an example that some centers in Madrid have achieved things.

The City Council of the Capital points out that “it has improved because the previous mandate round 350 faculty environments”, but the actions vary greatly: in some cases it is only paint on the ground, in others the sidewalks or placed fences have been extended, while only in three schools have been opted for total pedestrianizations. The Consistory recalls that the outrage did not occur on a school day and points out that “the environment of both centers has already improved: the sidewalk where the children’s school is located has a safety fence and the street has signage. The same happens in the case of access to the school, in which, in addition, by allowing the space, the sidewalks were extended and earrings were created in pedestrian crossings”.

In Barcelona, ​​the Municipal Program We protect schools [protegemos las escuelas] He acted in the surroundings of 200 schools, a third of the total, with ambitious actions that removed space to the car and created pedestrian space. “The downside is that on this legislature no new motion has been made in two years, nor does it appear to be deliberate. That leads us to proceed protesting,” says Hurtado.

The examples in which everyone looks are London and, above all, Paris. “London has a program to pedestrianize faculty streets and is doing it little by little. And Paris has gone additional and has already eliminated the site visitors of 500 colleges,” says Guille López, one of the School Revolta drivers who is now a councilor of Barcelona in Comú. And he advances that the initiative is studied as a law in Catalonia: “The College of Pediatricians of Catalonia has introduced a proposal within the Parliament in order that by regulation it’s acted in all Catalan faculty environments to make them safer and fewer contaminated.”