COIMBATORE: In a significant move to improve road safety for children, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has launched an initiative to design safer streets around schools and colleges through tactical urban interventions.
School streets at 10 locations across the five zones of the city, covering nearly four kilometres, will be transformed.
Officials say the project aims to create clearly demarcated footpaths, safer pedestrian crossings, traffic-calmed zones near school entrances, and improved junction management. It is expected to benefit more than 5,000 students along with pedestrians and cyclists.
The project focuses on quick, temporary, and low-cost design solutions that can be implemented rapidly while allowing authorities to evaluate their effectiveness before making permanent upgrades.
The initiative is being carried out with Design CoLab serving as the project consultant and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP India) acting as the knowledge partner.
The project comes in response to growing concerns about road safety for children in the city. According to accident data from the Traffic Police, Coimbatore recorded 55 children as road accident victims in 2025 alone. Urban planners say children are particularly vulnerable on roads as their physical and cognitive development often limits their ability to judge speed, distance, and potential dangers.
A 2021 study conducted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) across 25 schools in the city found that nearly 50% of students preferred walking or cycling to school. However, safety audits within a 250-metre radius of these institutions revealed several infrastructure gaps, including missing or discontinuous footpaths, lack of road signage and markings, absence of zebra crossings, and inadequate pedestrian signals.
As a proof of concept, tactical street design has already been implemented on VKK Menon Road in the Central Zone. The 200-metre stretch serves two Corporation schools with a combined student strength of about 530.
The initiative is expected to make streets safer and more child-friendly while encouraging sustainable modes of transport such as walking and cycling.