Effective traffic education calls for a seamless system that spans over a personīs entire lifetime. Elementary and secondary school are the most important phases of this system.
In Finland, traffic education is included in the basic teaching (7 to 15-year-olds) and connected to physical education and environmental and nature studies. In addition, traffic education can be chosen as an elective topic that is carried out in connection to several different subjects. Traffic education is however not an obligatory subjectin the school schedule.
How to mould traffic education to be more appealing and easier to implement
As traffic education does not have its own time slot in the school schedule, its implementation relies largely upon the interest of teachers. Traffic education has to compete for space against many other topics that are considered to be important and current. There are schools where the issue is properly addressed, but generally speaking the status and respect of traffic education has diminished over the years.
This situation has forced us to consider how to increase the appeal of traffic education and how to make it more easier to implement, so that teachers would carry it out.
Against this background, new types of tools have been developed. These tools are decidedly inexpensive, easy to acquire and easy to use. The material must be contemporary,
as concrete as possible and focus on familiar traffic situations and environments.
Traffic education is too often far removed from the every-day reality. At its most tedious, the students and teachers agree that traffic education consists of boring memorising of traffic information and traffic rules that do not seem to relate to oneīs daily movement needs at all.
The traffic education is at its most effective when it directly addresses the movement environment of the student and the daily movement routes. This has been one of the most important lessons in the new traffic education thinking. It is a lot more interesting and useful to learn how to operate properly in the familiar crossings and roads than in some neutral education crossing environment.
Mapping out trouble spotsOne useful way to link the surrounding environment to education is to map out dangerous places. The views of children, parents and teachers about the places that have been considered to be dangerous can be mapped out by using Secure Childīs School Route material. The mapping approach has proved to be a functional method for it accomplishes the following:
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In addition to pupils, it makes the parents pay more attention to the safety of their children while encouraging discussion about the dangerous places.
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Considering of the trouble spots makes the parents to look at their own traffic behaviour as well.
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With this approach, education can be focused on the most relevant issues and common situations.
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It is easy to produce, on oneīs own, local education material on the basis of the existing material.
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The approach exposes the problematic locations on the school routes and these trouble spots can be modified accordingly.
Taking advantage of new technology 
On the Liikenneturva web-site, www.liikenneturva.fi, there is Traffic education tool box for teachers. The site features the illustrated ground rules for pedestrians, bicycle users and moped users, traffic signs, tips for drawing out teaching plans and implementing common events, forms for mapping out danger spots, knowledge tests and a computer programme for students. From the teacher's point of view, the best features of the site are the dozens of print-ready exercises, demonstration guidelines, forms etc. The material is always up-to-date and free of charge. It can be printed out freely and copied for teaching use. Through the web site, schools can also provide information about their own traffic education ideas and their own events.
The tool box material is constantly being improved according to the wishes of the teachers. The materials have been assessed to be fully functional and the interest
towards arranging traffic education has increased.
New tool for making school traffic plans
The tool is designed to be an assisting instrument in a comprehensive and logical management of day-to-day traffic safety issues in the schools. The tool encompasses the safety of the school traffic environment, traffic education, cooperation with various parties as well as the school operative culture. There are also ideas and tips on how to integrate traffic safety issues into everyday school work and different subjects.
The purpose of the traffic plan is to define actions and guidelines which emphasise traffic safety and make them a permanent part of the operative culture of the school. In addition, another important part of making of the traffic plan is the process which is followed through at the school as traffic issues and ways of doing things are addressed together. As the entire school community discusses traffic safety together, it is easier to commit to the made decisions.
