AIP Foundation collaborated with the Gia Lai National Traffic Safety Committee to host a midterm review workshop in Pleiku City for Slow Zones, Safe Zones, the first-ever pilot program to reduce speed in school zones in Vietnam, supported by Fondation Botnar and the Global Road Safety Partnership. The program focuses on speed reduction and school zone safety through the construction of tailored school-zone modifications like speed bumps, road markings, speed reduction signs, and sidewalks. Additional program components include increased law enforcement, road safety public awareness campaign to promote positive road user behavior, and the development and testing of a nationally applicable road safety e-curriculum.

The program has seen great success in speed reduction so far including a reduction of speed to 40 km/h on national roads running past Nguyen Luong Bang Primary School and 30 km/h on provincial roads running past Phan Dang Luu Primary School. After one year of implementation, AIP Foundation found that parent knowledge of current speed limit and other traffic issues increased from 15.6% to 62.4%. The average speed of drivers around school zones in Pleiku reduced around 10 km/h for motorcycles and 15-20 km/h for cars, buses, and trucks. Reported student crashes fell from 25.3% to 7.4% The percentage of students hurt in road crashes near program schools in Pleiku also fell to 69% from 88.3%.

AIP Foundation hosted an experience sharing workshop with two other Foundation Botnar and Global Road Safety Partnership grantees, Save the Children and Plan International. The workshop concluded with site visits to the two program schools. Next program steps include advocating for continued police enforcement and advocating for continued speed reduction legislation.

Please see more photos from our launch here