Abu Dhabi: All public schools in the capital city will see a complete refurbishing of their surrounding areas complete with pedestrian crossings and additional parking spots by the end of this year, the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport (DoT) announced.

As part of this project, the Safety and Traffic Solutions Committee (STSC) at the Department will complete a total of 227 schools of which 130 were scheduled to be completed before the beginning of the coming school year in September, DoT officials stated earlier.

The list of improvements includes pedestrian crossings and footpaths, painting roads red to indicate school zones, improved signs and road marking, speed humps, more parking spots, speed limit signs, school buses and parents drop off and collection areas.

“The Department of Municipal Affairs is executing the schools zone improvements for all public schools. On the other hand, private developers will have to include all improvements according to the schools zone deadline issued by the STSC.” officials at the DoT said.

Earlier, Gulf News had reported that plans were under way to create free, private parking spots for teachers during working hours. However, updates on the current status of this scheme were not available.

Additionally, many of the new features such as installing speed bumps and improved signage are designed to limit the number of traffic accidents that take place near school areas as speeding was named the number one reason for these incidents.

School zones will be painted red to indicate a mandatory reduced speed limit for vehicles passing by. Designated collection and drop off areas for parents and buses are also being set up separately to ensure that no traffic congestion occurs as a result.

Officials had also earlier expressed understanding for some of the concerns faced by parents who hesitate to send their children using school buses for fear of the many risks the pupils may face on the roads nearby.

“All these issues combined create congestion and it is unfair for us to ask parents to send their children to face these dangers on a daily basis. I believe this is partially why school buses are not the preferred choice of transportation for parents,” Mohammad Al Shateri, Principal Road Safety Engineer at the Abu Dhabi Municipality, said at the eighth annual GCC Municipal Conference that took place in the capital in April.

The initiative was launched in 2012 to revamp areas surrounding all schools that fall under the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).