Kiss & ride system is at the gates of the Colégio Alemão

The students of the Colégio Alemão can now enjoy the perks of enhanced safety upon arrival to classes, with the implementation of the kiss & ride system, which the Municipality of Porto has been implementing in an increasing number of school areas in the city, within both state owned and private schools. The main goal is to ensure that by the end of the year, the signalling system is established in over fifty school areas in the city.

Following the implementation of this system in the school areas of EB 2,3 Irene Lisboa, EB Torrinha, EB João de Deus and EB Paulo da Gama, as of middle April, which was the time students went back to in-person classes, the Kiss & Ride has now been implemented in front of the Colégio Alemão, in Porto, located at Rua de Guerra Junqueiro.

When it comes to dropping off or picking up students in an expedited manner, the Kiss & Ride system provides a safer perimeter for parents and tutors. The blue dots in the road, namely in the pavement, in front of school areas identify both pedestrian lanes and car lanes. Speed limit at these points is 20 Km/h and the goal is to slow down the traffic movement, thus increasing safety and overall traffic mobility.

The establishment of these perimeters also seek to prevent double-parking in rush school hours, which relates to school entry and exit, thus enabling drop offs and pick-ups in total safety, both for students and drivers, with the advantage of being done in the shortest time possible.

The project kick started in 2016 and has expanded throughout the past years to other school areas where traffic constraints reveal hazardous, with a hectic rush hour that corresponds to the beginning and the end of each working day.

The Kiss & Ride system is estimated to be implemented in another 50 school areas, nearby private and state owned schools by the end of the year, in a municipal investment that reaches 50 thousand euros.

Porto City Hall monitors the effectiveness of the measure, in cooperation with schools and trough awareness campaigns jointly developed with the Municipal Police, in the scope of the “Escola Segura” [Safe School] programme.

The Kiss & Ride system has already been adopted nearby the Externato Escravas do Sagrado Coração de Jesus, in front of the schools Fontes Pereira de Melo and Clara de Resende, the Colégio de Nossa Senhora da Esperança; the Colégio de Nossa Senhora da Paz, the Colégio de Nossa Senhora de Lourdes, nearby the Escola EB 2,3 Dr. Leonardo Coimbra Filho and in front of Escola Secundária Carolina Michaëlis.

The Municipality is studying the implementation of such measure within the other international schools in the city, with communication prepared in Portuguese-French and in Portuguese-English.