Aleatica promotes a transformation of road culture to save lives in school environments – El Financiero

Aleatica and the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense (CEM) carried out diagnoses to identify the most important needs of the surrounding communities. Based on these studies, the Community Relations Program was created in the State of Mexico, which seeks to establish strategic alliances and focus projects in the municipalities of Chimalhuacán, Ecatepec, Texcoco, Tecámac, Nextlalpan, Ixtapaluca and Huehuetoca.

The Relationship Program is an example of its commitment to generating reliable long-term relationships with communities, based on the proposal of being a Great Neighbor that makes investments in social sustainability projects to promote comprehensive development.

In Mexico, 43 people lose their lives every day due to road accidents, which is equivalent to more than 24 thousand deaths per year; and traffic accidents are the fourth cause of death in people between 10 and 19 years old and the second in young people between 15 and 24 years old. For its part, the State of Mexico is one of the five states with the most deaths from traffic accidents, where two Mexicans lose their lives every day.

To reverse this trend and reduce road risks in school areas near the road, the CEM developed the Road Education We Are All initiative, in conjunction with the Mexican Red Cross, which consists of technical, theoretical and practical workshops on road education aimed at the school community: students, administrative staff, teachers and parents, in public schools in Ecatepec and Texcoco. These schools are selected based on the identification of black spots, that is, in the areas where a greater number of traffic events occur.

This initiative involves community participation at various levels: from the support of family volunteers who mark pedestrian crossings to facilitate safe crossings, as well as social cartographies in which girls, boys and young people draw on a map the places where they perceive increased road risk on their way to school and back home. Based on these maps, we work together with local authorities to propose changes in signage that the area requires.

Added to this methodology are road audits, exercises in which the speed at which cars travel, the width of the sidewalks and the number of people crossing the streets are measured. With this, points where there are no signs, traffic lights or speed bumps are identified, to have data that becomes actions that transform the reality of road safety in these areas.

“The activities seek to generate a change of culture in the schools near our road and its surroundings. With this strategy, messages about road safety are replicated and disseminated to the entire community so that, from their areas of responsibility, they can take actions that strengthen it,” commented Vanessa Silveyra, Global Director of Sustainability and User Service at Aleatica. And he added: “In this sense, it is estimated that each student who receives the information will share it, at least, with three people in their social circle, making it a great multiplying mechanism to forge road culture within the communities.”

To date, 3,154 students, parents and school teaching staff have been trained. The CEM recognizes the enormous value of education and knowledge to counteract the critical situation of road accidents that the state faces, which is why it will continue its work to raise awareness in communities and achieve tangible changes in society that save lives. human.