“Kiss and Drive” Initiative

Objective of model:

 Change of behavioral norms in the vicinity of schools

Infrastructural aspects:

 Recommendation of infrastructural improvements to the local authority safety board.

 The recommendations include the following:

-     Allocation of space for embarking and disembarking of schoolchildren in the vicinity of the school gate with minimal expenditure

-     Additional infrastructural improvements, e.g., safety rail

 Behavioral aspects:

 Changing the behavioral patterns of parents and schoolchildren in full cooperation with the school management and local authority.  We use education in order to improve the safety of children in schools.

• Fostering a sense of mutual responsibility between parents and children as pedestrians, passengers and drivers.

• Fostering tolerance between people and increasing awareness for the need to be considerate towards other road users.

• Increasing awareness for the importance of abiding by the traffic laws and paying attention to road safety.

• Fostering self-restraint and sound judgment with respect to road behavior.

• Taking an active part in carrying out the initiative in order to improve its implementation and assimilate the necessary behavioral changes.

• The mutual responsibility of parents and children increases the involvement of children by virtue of the equal level of responsibility that is required and applied to both parties.

• Full cooperation with the relevant authorities, with the understanding that existing resources should be exploited.  This cooperation significantly decreases unnecessary “noise” and facilitates the work carried out by the local authority.  It also allows us to focus on the issues at hand and provide the necessary professional, pressure-free responses in order to solve transportation-related problems near schools.

• Full cooperation with local authorities and the responsible agencies.

• Full cooperation with school managements, parents and children.

• Friendly instruction by parents to parents.  We believe that a proactive approach is far more useful than rigid enforcement and therefore we ask for the parents’ cooperation, while striving for minimal interruption of their daily lives.

The willingness to cooperate is characteristic of most parents for the following reasons:

• The personal responsibility load is minimal and does not its impact in the parents’ day-to-day activities is negligible.  We only require 30 minutes of their time per year.

• The added value is very high in terms of the children’s education, since personal example is the number one educational tool.  “Practice what you preach.”

• The “Kiss&Ride” method, which has proven its effectiveness in various countries worldwide, has been adapted by us to the Israeli public by involving the parents themselves.  The method is usually applied worldwide by school staff members who help the schoolchildren disembark from the cars, thereby shortening the parking time.  By our method the parents themselves undertake this task out of their sense of care and involvement, and the fact that they are requested to participate only once a year.

• The newly-created situation in which arriving to school is safe, efficient and quick is very encouraging for parents who are in a hurry to go to work.  “Today I help you, tomorrow you will help me.”

• Constant exposure to a safe, corrective experience throughout the year insures a proper education for future drivers.

• Volunteering parents are given authority to report unlawful or regulation-breaking behavior by drivers.  This is done in cooperation with the National Road Safety Authority which sends educational letters to the unruly drivers.

• Volunteering parents are given authority to report repeat-offenders.  This is done in cooperation with the local police department and in certain cases leads to fines.

Initiative Purposes

• Change behavioral norms in the school environment in order to decrease the public’s involvement in road accidents.

• Decrease the number of road accident casualties in Israel by educating drivers through the school system by implementing the initiative in their children’s schools.

Distribution of Local Authorities in Which the Initiative is Implemented

• Our initiative is presently being implemented in over 80 schools nationwide.

• The communities in which the initiative is implemented include the following: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ness Ziona, Tel Mond, Kfar Yona, Hod HaSharon, Herzlia, Mevaseret Zion, Modi’in, Matan, Zoran,  Ra’anana and more.

• We receive constant requests to implement our initiative in additional communities.