School surroundings
Road safety
Guide for road safety study document
Guide for road safety study document on a pedestrian route to school
This canvas was produced by Jonathan Brassard-Potvin, Eng., Vice-President of the Saint-Gérard School GB and delegate of the Saint-Gérard School to the Parents’ Committee of the Montreal School Service Center. Mr. Brassard-Potvin is the founder of Système-D. He is a specialist in decision intelligence using the SOODE method (Situation, Objectives, Options, Decisions, Evaluation).
The purpose of this guide is to facilitate the understanding of the outline prepared in PowerPoint format. It aims to clarify certain elements of the outline in order to adapt it to your situation. By drawing inspiration from this outline, you will be able to produce a document with credible and relevant data that can demonstrate to the municipality and the school service center the need to correct a dangerous situation and potentially avoid a tragedy for your children and your community.
Sample Canvas (PowerPoint .pptx File)
This document serves as an example in this guide , you can download it and modify it as needed, taking care to keep the references to its author and to the SOODE methodology. (The document is in french, but it only serve as a base. You will have to put in your own informations)
The canvas was created by Jonathan Brassard-Potvin, Eng.
It is distributed with permission by the RCPAQ for free use.
Contextualization of Mr. Brassard-Potvin
Since safety around schools is of paramount importance to our children, members of our Parents’ Committee explained that the subject was still a current issue at their school. They thus expressed the desire for shared solutions in order to facilitate the progress of their file within their GB.
Following a collective decision-making approach and taking matters into their own hands, the decision-making report ”Increasing the security level of the De Liège and Lajeunesse pedestrian crossing” was created for the GB of the Saint-Gérard primary school (Villeray, Montreal) in order to provide a decision-making support tool to those responsible at the Borough Hall.
This report helped by offering possible solutions, arguments for making representations to the central city (Montreal) and increasing the level of importance of the criterion of pedestrian protection vs. traffic flow when making decisions.
Thus, some of the proposed options have been accepted, the pedestrian crossing time at our problematic intersection has been more than doubled and the street in front of the school will soon be changed to one-way in order to reduce the number of cars, all for the benefit of the little ones, the young people and their parents.
Since decision-making involves multiple criteria, multiple actors and multiple options, a PowerPoint template to be completed and based on the SOODE decision-making methodology is also shared so that the GBs can create their own report.
In order to understand what led to the production of the original analysis document and the resulting framework, it is important to know that parents and the school community were asking for adjustments at this intersection without results. Several stakeholders were passing the buck (SB, borough, city center) and several departments. By preparing a rigorous file with real and verifiable data on the periods of entry and exit of classes, they managed to correct this situation and convinced all the stakeholders.
It is not a question of following this outline in its entirety, but of drawing inspiration from it depending on the problem to be solved. We will therefore take each of the slides in the outline with short explanations.
Empty canvas (Word .docx file)
This document can be used to conduct your own road safety study for your school. You can download it and fill it out, taking care to keep the references to its author and to the SOODE methodology.
Title page
From the title of the document, one should understand that the goal is to solve a problem. The approach must be positive. This demonstrates a desire for a solution versus a denunciation. For example: “Increased security”, rather than “Security problem”.
If possible, we will add a photo of the place or intersection in question.
Situation
The description of the situation should be made starting from an overview and specifying it down to the child’s level. Describe in a few lines the context, the people and groups at the origin of the request.
Brief description of the location, the problem, the number of students. Add aerial views captured by drone or via Google (Satellite or street view).
Indicate the importance you attach to the situation and the level of urgency and name the decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the situation.
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Possible decision makers
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Possible stakeholders
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Describe the existing situation more precisely, including relevant data such as:
- Traffic light duration
- Configuration
- Measured speed
- Existing measures
Add a more precise photo with arrows, boxes, bubbles or other to clearly indicate the situation.
Avoid using ideological formulas. We want to resolve or improve a situation, not fight a system, like denouncing the use of the automobile.
Describe the situation according to different periods of the day. Some decision-makers may base decisions on average data for the day, which has the effect of masking dangerous periods.
Indicate whether any unfortunate events, behavioral problems, incidents occurred and were reported. Specify the date and time if possible.
Make sketches or insert photos with descriptions
Describe the situation at the student level by providing specific data. This data can be obtained through observations made by parent volunteers over several days during critical periods.
The ability or speed of the smallest, slowest or most at-risk children must also be taken into account.
It is important to retain data for future reference and to be able to provide it to decision makers.
Objectives
This section allows you to specify the criteria to be prioritized based on the various stakeholders.
Define the criteria to be prioritized for each of the stakeholders mentioned in the Situation section. It is important to discuss with each of the stakeholders to obtain the criteria.
We can then determine the priorities that each party attributes to these criteria.
Options
This section describes the proposed solutions and fixes, their impacts, risks and consequences.
The first option to be presented should be the status quo. It will take up the findings described in the Situation section.
It should include the impacts and risks. It also adds a section showing the level of achievement of the objectives.
We must then describe proposals, corrections in the same form as the status quo.
We will resume a sketch of the situation by adding the proposed solution.
For each, it is necessary to specify how the situation will be improved, preferably by indicating precise data based on a realistic estimate.
It is important to try to come up with more than one solution.
It should be indicated which is the recommended solution.
There might be a recommended short term solution that would require little or less work.
We can also have a second solution recommended in the medium term.
And we could possibly have a third one in the longer term.
We will conclude this section by presenting a summary of the different solutions.
A short description will be provided and assessments of objectives and recommendations will be included if applicable.
Decision
This section completes the document to be sent to the decision-makers in the Situation section.
We will include a question posed to decision-makers using a positive approach. We will include the elements of the title.
We let the decision-makers answer the question and justify their decision.
Evaluation
This section will be added following the decision and its application.
The assessment may be carried out by the decision-maker and by the parents in order to ensure an improvement in the situation.
Resources to help you
Assessing safety conditions and determining solutions may require some research to find relevant information and inspiration. Here are some resources that can help you understand the situation at your school and point you toward effective ways to increase road safety around your school.