Adela Dimov - Safety March - National College Nicolae Bălcescu, Brăila, Romania

Brăila has mainly six roads and boulevards with intense traffic, which might be eligible for the production of many car accidents. As not all of the issues can be solved at once, after a serious examination, we decided to settle the Dorobanților Boulevard as the principal subject. This road has a radial and concentric structure and seals the other important streets of Brăila in a bow (fact that can be easily observed on Google Maps). This boulevard had been built after 1829, along with the legalization of the commerce on the Danube, when our town was the second most important city of Romania, right after Bucharest. In the moment of speaking, the Dorobanților Boulevard has two traffic lanes per direction, tram and represents a transit route for many cars that often circulate with a speed higher than the law allows; The mighty issues that had been found regarding to this street are:  The shortage of crosswalks; children and elderly are the most liable age-related categories for accidents. Generally, people are forced to walk through a long way to reach a crosswalk to pass across the street safely, which is why they often prefer to traverse illegally. This fact is perfectly illustrated by our teams, which photographed and filmed the behaviour. This act appears very explicitly not only in the photographs, but also in the movie realized and mounted by our colleagues. More exactly: the distance on Dorobanților Boulevard, between the pedestrian crossing of Galați Street and the crosswalk of Carpați Street is 500 m. There is no way of crossing Dorobanților Boulevard without any risk. At the intersection with Brateș Street, which is right in the middle of the space between the two main streets mentioned above, the traffic is very intense. The layout of a crosswalk at the intersection with Brateș Street would be very useful. The same difficult situation exists as well in the case of the crosswalks located at the intersections of the Dorobanților Boulevard with Gării Street and Diana Street. We’ve measured 600 m between them, which is why a crosswalk would be much needed at the intersection of the Dorobanților Boulevard with Cloșca Street (at the middle distance).  Dorobanților Blvd. is a traffic artery with risky curves which can reach up to 90 degrees. The lack of speed limiters in the areas with this type of curves and the absence of road signs that can warn the drivers about being in a zone prone to imminent accidents favours the appearance of regrettable traffic events. We have been collecting photos of shocking car accidents from residents that have their homes right on that street. Time and again, cars just divert from the street into the people’s homes. Thereby, the lives of the citizens that legally walk on the pavement, children that just ride their bikes or skate and play on the sidewalk are being put in danger. We have also interviewed some of the people that live there: each one of them told us that they don’t dare to let their kids to play outside, on the pathway, because of the multitude of accidents that usually occur. We have justifying photographs in the attached Power - Point presentation, as well as the interviews filmed by our colleagues;  The default of parapets located on the edges of the road is, as well, a factor which prevents the cars, implied in an accident, from hitting the nearby houses. Other European cities, which had been visited by our colleagues, such as Paris, Cheptainville, Lardy (France) benefit from this kind of parapets: the pedestrians are walking on the pavements safely and happily, fended from the unpleasant traffic events, provoked by cars.

Website cnnb.ro Photographic exhibition Film Youtube Newspaper article

Although the march only involved a limited number of people (approximately 80 persons), it had a major impact over the whole community. The Mayor committed to implement as soon as possible our initiatives. Also, the Vice Mayor and head of the Local Police have assured us that they will closely follow the implementation of our proposals, specially the two crosswalks and speed limiters.