APEEEL1 are pleased to report back on an interesting and productive meeting held on 11th October with Fonds Kirchberg and ES Luxembourg 1 Management.
APEEEL1 was represented by our transport and sustainability WG lead Daniel Latev and APEEEL1 president Helen Valentine. Daniel opened the meeting by presenting our 2019 transport survey conclusions. The timing of this survey was great because it reflected the current pre pandemic situation. Key points highlighted were:
- Biggest parent concern is safety of children
- High degree of frustration in accessing the school irrelevant form of transport used
- Extremely geographically dispersed population
- Parents prefer to accompany children younger than 10
- 70% of parents work in Kirchberg
- Limitations of public transports – takes too long with lack of suitable connections and no supervision for children.
- Collection significantly more problematic than drop off
There is a working group at the Fond to review cycle paths in Kirchberg.
There are a significant number of new housing units that are being planned for Kirchberg and it is hoped that in the future more European school families would live in these units. In the future the school will be in the centre of the city resulting in more challenges accessing the school by car. The school community will need to consider carefully how to use the P&R around Kirchberg.
Parents proposed to Fonds that there should be a joint meeting with COQUE to discuss parking options.
The request for traffic lights on kiss and go to allow for more cars to exit and peak times has been sent to the relevant department.
APEEE raised the question of flow of traffic challenges of all traffic lights around the school and speed of traffic. The Fonds Kirchberg is currently undertaking a study on circulation and speed in Kirchberg.
4 new schools are planned to either be established or moved to Kirchberg. In total this will mean an additional 2 primary and secondary schools and 2 new primary schools to serve the local residents.
The tram network will continue to be expanded with additional sections scheduled to be completed in 2028 and 2033.
Fonds Kirchberg envisage that 2025-2027 will see additional logistic and transport challenges for our school due to Parking Adenauer being decommissioned (due to housing project) and the boulevard being redeveloped for the new tram line.
Further options to explore the use of the new P&R and LUXEXPO as morning drop off point from 07:45-08:15 are to be investigated, along with the possibility of shuttle buses.
APEEEL1 expressed our concerns about the access for our school in the future especially considering the safety requirements of primary age children. The issue of needing to ensure that there are good collection options for parents was highlighted, as primary children cannot be left unsupervised in the event that parents are not at pick up points due to eg traffic issues.
One of the reasons for the challenging situation around the school is its extremely large size. There are almost 3300 students of which 1100 are primary age which increases the traffic around the school in peak hours.
We asked that Fonds Kirchberg consider a second kiss and go on the opposite side of the road.
PLEA for additional parents to join Daniel in our working groups as we have clearly a lot of work ahead of us! Contact office@apeeel1.lu if you are interested in joining.