About 1000 students and staff members come to the Berkendael site every day. The configuration of the street, the entrance to the school and the school schedule make this logistically complex for everyone.
In order to find the best possible balance between all the means of transport to get to school and taking into account that more than half of the students arrive by school bus. The APEEE Services Transport Department - in collaboration with the school management - decided to test the possibility for buses to leave the school site until 8.00 am (as opposed to 7.52 am previously) and the opening of the internal gate so that incoming and outgoing buses could pass each other. Buses arriving after 8:00 a.m. will have to wait until 8:16 a.m. to leave. This test was carried out from 30/01 to 17/02 included.

The main objective of this modification was to reduce the timing pressure on the buses in order to improve the safety of the bus users as well as the users who are close to the buses during their journey and in particular around and in the school. Indeed, the timing pressure leads to an increased risk in terms of safety (maneuvers that must be performed quickly, risk of not respecting speed limits in order to keep the timing,...).

The conclusion of these 3 weeks of testing is:

•  A rather limited number of buses leaving between 7:55 and 8:00 am (on average 3 or 4) but a real general easing of the speed of entry/exit on the site, of the time of unloading of the children, of the maneuvers on the parking lot to the benefit thus of the safety for all. This observation was made independently by the guards who ensure the security at the entrance of the school, the school assistants already present at 7:40 am to welcome the children from the buses and the personnel of the Berkendael transport service.
• A group of parents/children outside of the bus which is created at the entrance of the school before 7:55 am (time of opening of the gates for the children who do not come by bus) but then less than 25% of the children (who arrive outside of the bus) who arrive between 7:55 and 8:00 am. The most important flow is in fact observed between 8:00 and 8:15.

Based on these observations and following a debriefing meeting between the field actors, it was decided that this configuration would be confirmed for the rest of the school year.

This change does not mean that the overall work of improving access to school stops. Indeed, the actors in the field continue to work together in a process of continuous improvement to ensure the greatest possible safety at the school entrance. At the school's request, projects in collaboration with the police and the municipality are being discussed.

On the side of the Transport department, it was decided to work quickly on the schedule of some buses which arrive systematically after 7:55 am and which are those which pose the most problems in term of safety for the users except bus. Indeed, the blind spot of the bus when it enters the site is precisely where the parents/children gather to be able to enter the side of building A.