Speed limits around more than 100 Kyrgyz schools have been reduced to 30km/h in a pilot to improve child road safety following advocacy from Child Health Initiative partner Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) and local partner NGO, Public Association ‘Road Safety’ (PARS).

Child road safety is a critical issue for the Kyrgyz Republic, where 23% of road crashes involve children under the age of 16. The EASST and PARS project ‘Advancing 30 km/h around school zones in Kyrgyzstan’ has advocated for speed reductions around schools as part of EASST’s regional initiative to improve school zone safety, supported by the FIA Foundation Advocacy Hub.

The low-speed measures have been implemented on the recommendation of the Head of the Republican Traffic Police, Jenishbek Jorobekov, following a Regional Road Safety Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia. The event, organised by EASST and supported by the FIA Foundation, brought together key decision-makers from across Eastern Europe and Central Asia and strongly focused on school-zone road safety. During the meeting, Mr Jorobekov addressed the need for more road standards and speed management regulations and subsequently spearheaded the Kyrgyz school speed reduction pilot.

“30 km/h speed limit road signs were installed at 163 schools on a pilot basis near schools located on speedy roads of the Kyrgyz Republic,” Mr Jorobekov said. “Today, it is giving good results as a preventive measure in road accidents involving children.” 

PARS Director Chinara Kasmambetova added: “This year, we reached good results with our ongoing project - Advancing 30 km/h around school zones in Kyrgyzstan - supported by the EASST and FIA Foundation. Thanks to the Republican Traffic Police in Bishkek, we’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of piloted schools with 30 km/h signs from three in 2021 to more than 100 schools in 2024,” she added. “We hope the pilot programme will change our road legislative norms, our acceptance of changes and our attitude to new road safety rules.”

This is an important step forward for school zone road safety in Kyrgyzstan, and the Republican Traffic Police force is now advocating for the introduction of 30km/h school zones in national road safety legislation. EASST and PARS will continue to work with the government to support this effort and to demonstrate the critical impact reduced speed limits can have when implemented alongside strong enforcement and traffic-calming infrastructure.

The Republican Traffic Police force is now advocating for 30km/h school zones to be included in national road safety legislation. EASST and PARS will continue to work with the government to support this effort and to demonstrate the important impact reduced speed limits can have when implemented alongside strong enforcement and traffic-calming infrastructure.

FIA Foundation Executive Director Saul Billingsley said: “This is an important step forward for child road safety in Kyrgyzstan and the region. It’s great to see road safety leadership, national advocacy and regional knowledge sharing coalescing to deliver meaningful results. The FIA Foundation looks forward to seeing the impact of this pilot continue to grow.”

Read more: Speed limits reduced to 30km/h at over 100 schools across Kyrgyzstan - EASST