Recently, the introduction of digital school zone notification has received a lot of media attention in the Netherlands. These notifications inform motorists in-car when they are approaching a school zone, complementing road side and speed indicators. Strong political support in order to achieve safe school environments has led to a rapid nationwide rollout after a successful trail in the spring of 2023.
The trend of marking school zones with distinctive and recognizable features, such as speed bumps and warning signs, is being embraced by more and more municipalities. Service providers can contribute to this by sharing school zone information via navigation systems and travel apps. Motorists will then receive warning about approaching school zones and may be redirected to avoid these areas.
Before this information can be integrated into vehicle, however, several steps in the data chain are necessary. All school zone locations must be mapped, and school hours and holidays must be collected. This requires precise coordination between municipalities, schools, and data providers.
The transition from trials to nationwide implementation requires collaboration between municipalities, schools, and service providers. Regional data teams will play a connecting role and support municipalities in managing and maintaining the collected data. Currently, Rijkswaterstaat, the National Road Traffic Data Portal (NDW), and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management are collaborating on a feature that will enable municipalities to facilitate the management process for school zones. Publication of the school zone data in the NDW George application is expected in the second quarter of 2024, after which all municipalities will be involved in the implementation, maintenance, and improvement of this school zone data.
The introduction of digital school zone notifications marks an important step in improving road safety around schools. This innovation demonstrates how technology can be used to ensure the safety or our children on the road.
About the trial in 2023
In additional to roadside measures to make school areas safer, various road authorities started a trial this spring under the auspices of the VM-IVRA project (Traffic Management Information for Route Advice), informing road users via travel apps and navigation systems when they approached a school. These in-car notifications for school zones were tested in 5 Dutch municipalities including the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Helmond, and Meierijstad at 447 schools.
The trial, which took place place between December 2022 and June 2023, focused on both technical aspects such as data connectivity and data quality, as well as on organizational and functional aspects, such as collaboration and conditions for data provision, as well as the scope of the service.
Several parties were involved in the pilot: the 5 municipalities where the trail was conducted, Rijkswaterstaat, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the National Road Traffic Data Portal (NDW), the PO-Raad (sector association for primary education), and the service providers who shared their data via the apps Flitsmeister, Waze, Onderweg (Locatienet) and ANWB Onderweg. Data intermediary GeoJunxion used the school zone data for customers in the logistics and automotive sectors.
About VM-IVRA
Smart tailor-made route advice for every motorist: that is what next generation traffic management is all about. The VM-IVRA (Traffic Management – Information for Route Advice) project makes all of this possible. Under the motto ‘from traffic data to smart routing’, road authorities, service providers and car manufacturers are working together on digital traffic management. How do we do that? By sharing data with each other and by developing smart in-car services that allow motorists to reach their destination in a fast and safe way, taking the safety and liveability of the area into account. This is how we go digital together!
The VM-IVRA project is part of the Rijkswaterstaat Talking Traffic programme and is carried out under the flag of the National Traffic Management Council (LVMB) and Digital Transition Mobility (DTM): on behalf of and for all road authorities.
Read the report: The report evaluates a trial with a new application: the school zone warning. The trial is part of the traffic management information for route advice project (VM-IVRA). Governments and companies work together on traffic management. This involves sharing traffic data from road authorities with data intermediaries/service providers.
