The Integrated Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Technologies of Traffic Information (LISITT) of IRTIC has implemented, together with ESAM technologies and the Torrent City Council, a network of safe and intelligent routes that allows parents to monitor their children's routes and receive a notification when they arrive at the school. The school routes also have intelligent pedestrian crossings and 3D pedestrian crossings in higher risk areas.

The Torrent Safe School Routes project has started its pilot phase this school year, with the participation of 3500 schoolchildren from 8 nursery, primary and secondary schools in the city. The project aims to create a network of safe routes from the point of view of road safety, reduce the number of private vehicles and encourage children's autonomy.

Following the analysis of road safety and the establishment of routes, vertical signs identifying the routes and horizontal signs indicating the route, made from recycled tyre rubber, were installed. One of the technological innovations that have been implemented are the intelligent pedestrian crossings, which aim to improve the visibility of drivers and children. In this way, the system uses intelligent cameras to detect the proximity of a person at the pedestrian crossing and is activated at night and during the day with different LED light signals that inform the driver of the pedestrian's proximity. In addition to this, pedestrian crossings have been painted to simulate three-dimensional pedestrian crossings.

Through the city's communications network, based on data transmission via municipal lighting PLCs, the project has covered the school routes with sensors. Along the route and in the educational centres, wifi and bluetooth detectors have been installed to identify the MAC of the device carried by the children. These devices - key rings that schoolchildren carry in their backpacks - monitor the route and send a notification to parents when they arrive at the school. This is a technology patented by the group itself and the University of Valencia.

These two technological solutions aim to improve road safety and families' confidence in the safety of the route in order to promote walking to school. The project will analyse the real and perceived effect that the provision of these types of tools has on the decision of families to have their children use these routes.

Gamification in a smart city

Each week, each class is informed of the number of kilometres they have travelled. Thus, by turning the journey to the school into a game, the pupils enter the competition to see which class saves the most CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. As the project's researchers explain, "this is an example of how gamification in a smart city can change behaviour".