The conference Barn, Liv & Trafik gathered participants around children’s safety in the traffic environment
Today, nearly 200 delegates gathered to share knowledge about how to create a safer traffic environment for children and young people. During the conference the delegates learnt about the most dangerous traffic situations for young people and was inspired by the well-known lecturer Micke Gunnarsson how to create behavioral changes through right mind-set. Also, many examples of effective measures on how a safer traffic environment around schools can be created, was presented.
Several of SAFER's partners participated with knowledge, such as Irene Isaksson - Hellman from If Insurance, who presented the latest accident statistics and Lotta Jakobsson, Research area director, discussed child safety challenges linked to future cars, automation and new forms of car ownership. Lotta emphasized the importance of children's involvement and continuous collaboration with the target group. Lotta presented an interesting study about children's future visions for self-driving vehicles and these differed from the adults’. For example, children saw more opportunities regarding the use of different screens and other media in the cars and were more positive to safety belts compared to the adults.
An interesting case presented was the Andersberg project, where in a multicultural neighborhood the use of bicycle helmets in the district was doubled through close collaboration between the child health care center, schools and the local landlords.
Some of the overall conclusions from the conference were that success factors for creating sustainable change towards a safer traffic environment are to work with behaviour, attitudes and collaboration. Children do not do as adults say, they do as adults are. Therefore, every successful project must begin with your own attitudes and then develop ideas in close collaboration with the children. Information, support, design of features, for example safety belts in buses, are other keywords for increased traffic safety.
Children, Life and Traffic is the meeting place for those who work with urban and traffic environments, public health and education related to children and young people. The conference was arranged for the fifth time and is a collaborative project between SAFER, NTF West and the City of Gothenburg.
