Using modal filters to make school streets safer

A simple but clever road modification is drastically improving safety on streets outside schools. Transport planner Liz Irvin will explain how modal filters – simple kerb extensions – are reducing and improving traffic flows to make roads near schools safer and more attractive.

Liz will outline how to design modal filters for different types of roads, drawing on positive examples in Melbourne, and how to effectively trial them so people can experience the new street layout.

Modal filters are one of the simplest and cheapest tools in the sustainable transport toolkit but they can have a profound impact on improving road safety, reducing car noise and pollution around schools and encourage a return to children walking and cycling to school.