Road safety: The CAA-Quebec Foundation sponsors a study to measure the impact of school drop-off patrols
School-zone traffic just before and after school is an important mobility and road safety issue. That’s why CAA-Quebec set up its school drop-off patrol pilot project: to promote safer school zones and enable kids to get in and out of vehicles safely and without interruptions. Having observed clear improvements at Springdale School in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Anne Hébert School in Quebec City, the time had come to quantify those safety improvements with a full study.
Why a research study?
The first phase of the school drop-off patrol project involved two schools, one in Montreal in 2019 and the other in Quebec City in 2021. That first phase yielded qualitative data for looking at things like the sense of safety among students, parents, and in the school generally, all of which were very positive.
Phase 2 of the project seeks to measure in concrete terms how such patrols affect children’s safety in school zones. The study will run for two years and be conducted in steps. The researchers will first set up on the streets around a school with no drop-off patrol program in place and observe children’s arrivals and departures. Then, after a school drop-off patrol program has been put in place, they will make the same observations at the same school and compare datasets.
Dual objective
The study’s first objective is to show whether school drop-off patrols significantly improve overall safety, particularly that of children on the streets around schools. The second objective is to find out whether it’s safe to have young people operate such patrols beside the streets. If the results are positive on both counts, the Foundation may offer to set up drop-off patrols at all the province’s elementary schools.
A plethora of partners
The safety of the streets around our schools is clearly a shared priority, as reflected in the ease with which the Foundation was able to recruit partners. The study is supported by the cities of Montreal and Quebec and conducted by well-known researchers Professor Marie-Soleil Cloutier and Professor Martin Lavallière, both members of the Quebec Road Safety Research Network. The Foundation will also be working with the administrations and boards of the participating schools and getting financial support from the Road Safety Fund.
“Ultimately our goal is to expand school drop-off patrols to the entire province. The second phase of this project will bring us a little closer to that goal, cutting down on incidents and making our kids that much safer in school zones.”
Marco Harrison, Road Safety Expert and Director, CAA-Quebec Foundation
How do school drop-off patrols work?
It starts with the person in charge of the patrol ushering a set of vehicles into the designated drop-off zone. That’s generally an area marked off with signs or cones on the school grounds or a nearby street. Once the vehicles are parked, young CAA-Quebec patrollers open the car doors and help the children get safely out. Then the cars leave, and the students are escorted into the school or schoolyard. The process is repeated until the bell rings. To find out more, watch this video, in French, shot by the newspaper Le Soleil during the launch of the school drop-off patrol at Anne Hébert School in Quebec City last fall.
About the CAA-Quebec Foundation
The CAA-Quebec Foundation was founded in 2008 to advance our understanding of road safety. It does so by conducting studies and acting as a resource for Quebec specialists and organization active in the field. CAA-Quebec is a not-for-profit organization that gives its members peace of mind by providing outstanding benefits, products, and services in the areas of mobility, travel, housing, and insurance.
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