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Future Forum's junior research fellow, Sok Chhengleang was published in Cambodianess on. Check out the original article here, and read it below.
Imagine a Phnom Penh where children can roam freely in public spaces. Imagine a city where it is safe for students — from primary to secondary school — to commute to class with their friends by walking or cycling independently.
Imagine an urban landscape where the elderly, people with disabilities, and everyone else can gather around the city for pleasure, whether in the morning or evening, for exercise or just to stroll around.
This is strikingly different from the status quo. Streets are choked with motorbikes and cars, particularly during rush hour.
These busy periods stretch from one to five hours, exacerbated by a disregard for traffic laws, a growing population, an excessive number of vehicles, and roads next to densely populated areas and key locations like schools and universities.
The National Police's annual report for 2022 reveals a grim statistic: 2,980 traffic accidents, up from 2,670 in 2021, underscoring the persistent road safety crisis in Cambodia.
The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport has instructed all public schools to adopt traffic safety measures. These include implementing traffic signs and barricades and reducing speed limits.
Yet, enhancing road safety for students requires a more holistic approach — creating pedestrian-friendly streets and improving the overall environment around schools.
Phnom Penh's urban landscape, especially around schools, must be redesigned to enhance walkability and safety for students.
School Areas Should Be for Students
In Cambodia, students predominantly travel by motorcycle, often with their parents.
At Chey Chum Nas Primary School, for instance, over 70 percent of the 795 students are transported by motorcycle. Similarly, at Hang Ngai Srah Chak Primary School, more than 75 percent of the 436 students commute this way.
Phnom Penh’s evening congestion is not only due to students commuting but also worsened by parents idling their vehicles outside schools while waiting to pick up their children.
The physical infrastructure around schools is arguably inadequate. Of 564 participants in a study that discussed the walkability of neighborhood streets in Phnom Penh, 60 percent perceived neighborhood streets as unwalkable and unsafe.
More importantly, 23 percent said sidewalks around schools are inadequate and hard to navigate. Streets were known for business activities rather than people. Too often, the streets were overcrowded with illegally parked vehicles and had no trees or flowers.
Streets Are Also for Learning
Children interact with streets through walking, biking, or playing. Independent mobility, the freedom to navigate their neighborhood without adult supervision, is essential for children's development. But if the environment is accident-prone, how can parents let their children walk alone?
This simple aspect of life for children shouldn’t be neglected because promoting independent travel for students has shown positive outcomes.
A pan-Canadian School Travel Planning intervention, that encouraged active school travel (AST), explored the relationship between travel modes, emotions, and well-being. Parents and children who engaged in active school travel — walking and cycling — reported more positive emotions than those who relied on motorized transport.
Correspondingly, the ability to travel freely through the city shouldn’t be limited to biking or motorcycling but also walking.
A study involving 215 children from a public school in Bilbao, Spain, found that those who participated in the “walking with friends to school” project, which provided access to pedestrian paths, exhibited greater independence than those who did not. Greater independence means greater learning autonomy.
The loss of independent mobility not only limits children's play but also reduces physical activity, contributing to health issues like obesity and affecting their educational and skill development. Therefore, improving road safety around schools should be a top priority to diversify the means of travel for children.
Encouraging Students to Walk to School
Various factors can encourage children to walk to school. In Taipei's Wenshan district, a study of three elementary schools — Chinan, Jingmei and Xinhua — revealed that high shade-tree density and extensive sidewalk coverage promoted independent walking. Conversely, large block sizes and numerous intersections caused children to refrain from walking to school.
To promote active and independent commuting for students, we should bring more street greenery. It makes sense to begin by planting more trees in school areas.
Phnom Penh has low tree density, especially in suburban areas. As of 2018, according to a UNDP report, the government registered 42,030 street trees from 382 streets in Phnom Penh.
About 50 out of 382 streets have fewer than 10 trees. The report notes that on average Phnom Penh has fewer trees per street than other cities.
Phnom Penh should also seek to reform our road policies so that areas around schools are treated differently. International case studies may be useful for authorities. Barcelona's 'protegim les escoles' program, launched in 2020, reallocated significant road space from vehicles to pedestrians around schools.
By 2023, this initiative aimed to include 196 schools, achieving a 79 percent reduction in traffic and nearly 90 percent on fully pacified streets. These changes included permanently removing car parking spaces and transforming streets into pedestrian-friendly zones.
In Auckland, New Zealand, the 'safe school streets' pilot restricted parent parking, creating 'drop off and pick up only' areas.
This reduced vehicle numbers at peak times and encouraged more families to walk or cycle. Follow-up studies revealed significant reductions in risky road behavior and increased use of walking and cycling.
Around 35 percent of respondents chose walking as the primary mode for school travel, and 84 percent felt it was safe or very safe for students to walk near school entrances during peak times.
The concept of “safe school streets” can be translated to Cambodian school streets where parking or drop-off in front of school gates should be limited, specifically during school starting or ending hours.
Parents should be encouraged to wait elsewhere and pick up their children together. Streets on the periphery of schools in Cambodia would also benefit from infrastructural changes like speed bumps, elevated and illuminated pedestrian crossings, clearly posted speed limit signs or even reduced road sizes. These streets might also be made one-way to limit through traffic.
With road reforms, school areas will no longer be packed with motorbikes or cars during the end of the class but be dedicated to saving up those spaces for students to wait and walk around the school covered by greenery.
This would help make Phnom Penh walkable and safe for students.
From Congestion to Walk-Free Areas
Improving the areas around schools requires more than just road regulations and measures. Encouraging independent travel for children necessitates creating safe spaces for commuting within the community. Implementing 'School Streets' — areas where vehicles are restricted, and walking is prioritized — can significantly enhance public well-being and walkability.
To transform Phnom Penh into a city that promotes learning and safety, making every corner learnable requires the authority to prioritize walkable streets around schools.
This will benefit students and the entire community by continuously shifting the urban environment from fully vehicle-oriented to human-centric.
Motorists and cars make their way in traffic near an over pass under construction in Phnom Penh on February 6, 2024. Photo by TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP
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