October 16, 2013
A final evaluation of the Walk Wise pedestrian safety project pilot phase revealed encouraging results. The Walk Wise pilot implemented road safety education curricula at Qili and Gaoqiao primary schools in Kai County in China during the 2012-2013 school year. The report was completed by Sichuan University in August and the results were presented at the Phase II launch in October. The evaluation is comprised of a comparison of baseline and post-implementation data.
The evaluation found a decrease in the number of children involved in road traffic crashes; the baseline found that 43% of students had been involved in a road traffic crash and 57 percent of those students were injured in the 2011-2012 school year. At the end of the implementation year of 2012-2013, 23 percent of students had been involved in a road traffic crash and only five percent of those students were injured. A majority of students reported to feel safer, almost all students remembered how to cross the road safely, and road safety behaviors overall have improved greatly since Walk Wise project implementation.