Transport / [DOPLNIT DATUM] / 3 min read
A safe route to nursery is not an extra. On Okrouhlická there must be no waiting for another accident
8žije
A few days ago we came close to a tragedy at the Okrouhlická crossing on Zenklova. A driver failed to stop at a red light and hit a pre-school child from the local nursery right on the crossing. Parents have been pointing out the problems at this place for a long time. Now the promise of a solution needs to turn into concrete steps.
At the Okrouhlická crossing on Zenklova, exactly what the parents of local children had long feared happened.
A driver failed to stop at a red light and hit a pre-school child who was crossing at the crossing by the local nursery. Fortunately it did not end in tragedy. But it was far too close.
Events like this must not be brushed aside with the line that “the system is set up correctly”. If parents have long felt unsafe in a place where small children walk regularly, the city and the district have a duty to take it seriously.
Parents have been raising the problem for a long time
The problems with the Okrouhlická crossing are not new.
Parents have long been raising them with our councillor and the leader of the Holešovičky pro lidi association, Michal Trník. They repeatedly describe the short time available for crossing, the long wait for a green light, vans standing on the pavement and poor visibility around the crossing.
All of this together creates a place that is unpleasant for an adult and risky for a child.
Even so, we were repeatedly told by those responsible that everything is set up correctly and that the smooth flow of traffic also matters.
But public space cannot be judged only by how smoothly cars move. It also has to be judged by whether a child can get through it safely on the way to nursery. And there are many more problems along that route. Cars and vans parked in the junction and on the crossing at S. K. Neumanna, or delivery drivers for the Alzabox blocking the pavement right in front of the Okrouhlická stop.
The open letter was signed by 100 people
After the collision we decided, together with the parents, not to wait for another warning.
We wrote an open letter to the Prague 8 councillor for transport. Within two days 100 people had signed it. We then read the letter out at the council meeting.
We thank the councillor for transport for promising, immediately after the letter was read out, to look at the situation again and to work on it together with us.
That is an important first step. But further steps must now follow.
The promise must be followed by a concrete solution
The situation on Okrouhlická is not one institution's problem. That is why everyone who can contribute to a safer arrangement needs to be involved: the district, TSK, Prague City Hall, the police, the nursery and the parents.
The aim should not be to find one miracle fix. The aim should be to look at the place as a whole and to assess what will genuinely improve safety for the most vulnerable.
The main things that need to be addressed are:
- the length of the pedestrian signal and the time actually needed to cross safely
- the length of the wait for a green light, which shapes how pedestrians and children behave
- sightlines around the crossing
- parking and van deliveries on the pavement
- the safety of children's route to nursery
- the scope for quick measures that will not wait for a major reconstruction
Not everything has to take years. Some changes can be relatively small but very important for safety.
The most vulnerable are the best test of a city
Public space is best tested by those who are most vulnerable in it: children, older people, people with limited mobility or parents with pushchairs.
They are the ones who show very quickly where a city does not work. Where a crossing is too short. Where the wait is too long. Where visibility is poor. Where a car parks in what should be safe space for pedestrians.
When a city works for children, it works for everyone.
That is not a slogan. It is a basic rule of good public space.
A safe route to nursery is the minimum
A crossing by a nursery should not be a place where parents worry every day whether their child will get to the other side safely.
A safe route to nursery is not an extra. It is not a luxury add-on to a traffic scheme. It is the minimum that Prague 8 has to manage.
We thank the parents who spoke up, signed the open letter and are helping to push for a solution. We are also grateful for the promise that work on the situation will start again.
Now it must not stop at words.
On Okrouhlická there must be no waiting for another accident.