TRAFFIC CONFLICT RISKS AND LOCAL STREET NETWORK MANAGEMENT DURING ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL PEAKS AROUND URBAN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

School arrival and dismissal concentrate pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles on streets with little room for stopping, waiting or crossing. Conflicts can arise at the entrance, but also at pick-up points, junctions and streets used to bypass congestion. This narrative review draws on Chinese school-access studies, video-based traffic-conflict research, evaluations of timed vehicle restrictions and relevant design guidance to examine how local street circulation affects these interactions. The evidence measures different outcomes: video records reveal potentially hazardous encounters; collision-risk models estimate risk under specified assumptions; crash data document past injuries; and intervention studies largely measure traffic volumes or travel choices. Video observations at one primary school identified 43 potential conflicts using time-to-collision, post-encroachment time and braking criteria. Controlled evaluations of School Streets, by contrast, reported differing changes in active school travel. Monitoring around two restricted school streets also found traffic redistribution and altered parking activity alongside lower total vehicle volumes across the monitored roads. These findings make a gate-only assessment inadequate. The review relates crossing design, pick-up arrangements, turning restrictions and route continuity to their respective conflict mechanisms, then sets out measures for comparing safety, traffic operation and access across the surrounding streets. Whether such interventions reduce pupil–vehicle conflicts or injury crashes over time remains less certain.