The national government has urged local government units to replicate Manila’s Children Road Safety Park to educate more children about road safety and traffic discipline.
During the recently concluded Road Safety Summit, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Corazon Jimenez encouraged local chief executives to build a park for children to learn the proper behavior of pedestrians and motorists on the road.
“At a young age, children should be oriented about traffic safety signals, measures and proper behavior so that they will grow up being disciplined motorists and pedestrians,” she said.
Located in front of Manila Zoo at the corner of Adriatico Street and Quirino Avenue, the MMDA’s Children Road Safety Park features miniature road signs, pedestrian lanes and footbridges, where children can act as pedestrians or motorists.
Jimenez disclosed that the construction of the 4,800 square-meters of park cost the MMDA P7 million. Although costly, investing in the education of children on road safety and traffic discipline is a significant deterrent to the rising number of injuries and deaths among pedestrians, most of whom are under schooling age.
Transportation Assistant Secretary Dante Lantin, for his part, stressed the need for improved measures to protect pedestrians during the Road Safety Forum themed “Pedestrian Safety” held last week in Pasay City.
He said government statistics show that pedestrians constitute around a quarter of the 1.3 million annual global road deaths, many of whom are children and older people from the low and middle income countries such as the Philippines.
Walkability Asia 
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