The Abertis Foundation, Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation, Te-léfonica, and the public transport operator, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, have laun-ched KanGo!, a project to help school children from the neighbourhood of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (Barcelona) to travel to school alone on public transport. The pilot scheme aims to help school children become more independent, making sure they are safe on their way to school, and winning the trust of both the pupils and their families.
The pilot scheme involves:
1) Using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology at the city’s bus stops closest to schools;
2) Detecting on behalf of families which bus stops their children are at along the designated routes; and
3) Sending families a text message or email with this information.
NFC is a contactless technology enabling devices within close proximity of each other to con-nect and exchange data. It will allow the school children’s families to automatically receive messages of where their sons and daughters are (at bus stops or at school) when the pupils swipe their travel passes. To facilitate this, KanGo! volunteers from the Catalan Down Syn-drome Foundation will be on hand at each of the designated bus stops to ensure children swi-pe their travel passes. The project requires travel pass readers to be installed at the gates to participating schools, and families to be engaged and involved.
Some 100 girls and boys currently participate in the scheme; a figure that varies depending on each family’s arrangements. Children must be at least eight years old to take part in the scheme, be holders of the T12 travel pass, carry an ID card with an NFC chip, and make su-re they swipe their passes when they board a bus and arrive at school.
The following schools are enrolled: IE Costa i Llobera, Col•legi Sant Ignasi, La Salle Bonanova, Col•legi Jesús-Maria Sant Gervasi, Escola Tàber and Escola Projecte. The pilot scheme was launched in January and will end in June 2015. An evaluation will be carried out in June and July to assess fulfilment of the objectives and any weaknesses detected.
The agreement was presented by the Abertis Foundation’s Director of Institutional Relations, Sergi Loughney; Sarrià-Sant Gervasi alderman, Joan Puigdollers; Managing Director of the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation, Katy Trias; and Telefónica’s Director of Public Administration in Catalonia, Mariano Yagüez.
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