Unsafe driving during school drop offs at ‘unacceptable’ levels

Double parking, not obeying traffic controls and other unsafe behavior witnessed at 98% of schools studied

Risky driving behaviors at school drop-off across Canadian municipalities

Taylor & Francis Group

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Risky driving by parents and other motorists who do the school run is putting children in danger, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

Double parking, not obeying traffic controls and other unsafe behavior occurs at the majority (98%) of elementary schools during morning drop-off times. 

The authors analyzed data from more than 500 schools in Canada and say hazardous driving is an “urgent and serious” issue. The most observed misdemeanour was to drop a student on the opposite side of the street which meant the child had to cross in the middle of the block with no traffic controls.

The researchers warn that unsafe driving increases (by 45%, as demonstrated in previous research) the chance of a car crash involving child pedestrians and other vulnerable road users such as cyclists. In addition, parents are even more likely to drive their children to lessons instead of them walking or using other active forms of transportation.

‘Kiss-and-rides’ where designated spaces are provided for private vehicle drop offs are among reforms suggested by the authors. They also say accessible parking should be available for families with a disabled child.

Although the researchers didn’t monitor speeding, the schools with the fewest types of risky driving behaviors had more adjacent roads with speed limits of either 30km/h or 40km/h (versus 50+ km/h).

They also had more direct access to school entrances, and more parking restrictions on both sides of the roadway than those with the most recorded types of risky driving behaviors.

“The results indicate the unacceptable level and types of risky driving behaviors in school zones,” says Tona Pitt, a Research Associate at the University of Calgary, in Alberta.

“Risky behaviors can have a doubly negative effect. They increase collisions involving vulnerable road users and potentially dissuade active school transportation.”

Tona adds: “We have often heard from parents, residents, teachers, and other stakeholders, that school drop-off is a chaotic time.

“This study helps to quantify that a bit and we do observe some sort of dangerous driving behaviour occurring a nearly every school on randomly selected days.

“Drop-off locations, physical changes to the roadways, and crossing guards might help to reduce these behaviours in the meantime, but at the end of the day parents feel the need to drive their children to school and this is often due to systematic issues related to urban planning and/or limited access to schools.

“The findings suggest improvements to the built environment around schools that may help to address this serious and urgent situation.”

Use of private vehicles to take children to school has increased substantially. For instance, in the US, from 1969 to 2009, by 47.5%. Conversely, there has been a drop in active forms of school transportation such as walking and biking which improves child health and development. Previous CHASE data indicates 45.8% of children in Canadian schools use some form of automotive transport to get to school.

As such, school drop-off times can result in high volumes of traffic. This situation means drivers may park illegally and resort to other unsafe practices which can put children at risk.

The Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment (CHASE) study was based on morning drop-off time data collected between spring 2018 and 2019. A total of 552 elementary schools in seven cities were included.

Audits were done of the physical environment at roads adjacent to the schools. Speed limit signs, designated parking areas, and presence of a crossing guard were among features documented for CHASE.

In addition, the authors classified how much the built environment around each school promoted physical activity and health using the Active Living Environment (ALE) measure.

Research assistants positioned themselves from 20 minutes to five minutes after school start at either side of the main entrance. Their checklist was based on nine risky driving behaviors as follows:

• U-turns
• backing up dangerously
• double parking
• not obeying traffic controls
• parking blocking crossing controls
• parking in such a way as to block sightlines of road users
• texting while driving
• talking on the phone while driving
• dropping a child off on the opposite side of the street with the child subsequently crossing in the middle of a city block where there are no traffic controls.

Schools with the highest and lowest occurrences of a type of unsafe behavior were identified. Any association between this behavior and the physical environment near schools was documented.

Results from CHASE showed that at least one behavior affecting road safety took place at all the elementary schools. The risky behavior that occurred the least was using a phone/texting (20%) – although, this varied by city with cellphone use observed at 38% of Calgary schools.

Schools with the fewest types of risky behaviors had more favourable ALE scores, fewer roads directly adjacent, and more kerb extensions – features that narrow lane width to reduce vehicle speeds. They also had more signage to restrict parking and more access to entrances to the school.

Overall, more than half (55%) of schools had child or adult crossing guards (or both). Schools with the fewest types of risky driving behaviors were less likely to use children, a finding which the authors say represents a cause for ‘serious concern’. They suggest the presence of an adult may be more effective in curtailing risky driving behavior than a child guard on their own.

Some differences between cities were also observed. U-turns in front of a school were most common in Toronto (82%) whereas parking that blocked an entrance view came top in Peel Region (75%).

A limitation of the study was that the research assistants did not count the actual number of risky behaviors, only whether they observed at least one at a school.

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Journal

Traffic Injury Prevention

DOI

10.1080/15389588.2025.2478153 

Article Title

Risky driving behaviors at school drop-off across Canadian municipalities: Findings from the Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment (CHASE) study

Article Publication Date

10-Apr-2025

 

Reality check on our approach to saving Nemo’s home

Restoration isn’t a silver bullet for dying coral reefs

Flinders University

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One-third of coral-reef restoration projects fail. Even successful restorations cannot offset the loss from climate change.

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Credit: Flinders University.

As coral bleaching and deaths become more widespread globally, experts are re-evaluating the benefits of restoration missions to reverse damage and protect some of the world's most species-rich ecosystems.

When sea temperatures climb above average for sustained periods, corals can become bleached, meaning that they expel their symbiotic algae. If bleaching is severe, it can eventually kill the coral tissue.

Warming seas and marine heatwaves driven by climate change are the primary culprits, while overfishing and pollution are also making things worse. This has led to bleaching in iconic locations such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, home to the beloved clownfish – made famous by Nemo of Pixar movies.

The most common coral restoration method is known as coral gardening, where coral fragments grown in nurseries are transplanted to the reef.

Restoration can take other forms, including removing species that eat corals (such as parrot fish), transferring coral spawn, or even manipulating the local microbiome to enhance coral survival. 

A new study by Dr Giovanni Strona at the European Union Joint Research Centre, Clelia Mulà of the University of Western Australia, and Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University in Australia has examined the reasons behind the failure of these restoration efforts to deliver enhanced protections for coral reefs.

This analysis was done in collaboration with researchers from the University of Milan-Bicocca, the Marine Research and Higher Education Center (Maldives) and the University of Helsinki.

Published in open-access journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, their results show major barriers to effective interventions include the small scale of restoration programs, high costs per hectare, and the tendency to restore already compromised reefs that are highly vulnerable to future heat stresses.

“Most restoration projects only operate over several hundred or a few thousand square metres. Compared to the 14% loss and degradation of coral reefs between 2009 and 2018, equating to nearly 12,000 square kilometres, we come nowhere close to the scale of restoration that is needed to offset the losses from climate change,” says Professor Bradshaw.

“This combination of adverse factors, coupled with the fact conservation efforts can target sites that don’t have the highest change of success, means over a third of projects fail.

“This reality check should stimulate constructive debate about when and where restoration is most feasible and important. But the truth is that without stemming the pace and magnitude of climate change, we have little power to save coral reefs from massive losses over the coming century and beyond.”

The researchers say restoration failures can be for many reasons, including poor planning, unproven technologies, insufficient monitoring and subsequent heatwaves.

“Although coral restoration has the potential to be a valuable tool in certain circumstances, our research makes it clear it is not yet and might never be feasible to scale up sufficiently to have meaningful, long-term, and positive effects on coral reef ecosystems,” says Professor Bradshaw.

The research shows that coral reefs benefit more than 1 billion people globally by providing tourism dollars, food security and protection from storms and coastal erosion.

“Some estimate that over the past 40 years, the coverage of coral reefs has declined by at least 50%. As climate change continues, bleaching events and coral deaths will only become more common, with projected losses of total coral cover of more than 90% by the end of the century,” says Dr Giovanni Strona.

“One of the problems here is that there are no agreed formats for collecting or reporting data from restoration projects. This makes it difficult or impossible to identify the conditions leading to success and reduces the pace of improvement. Indeed, we found that no measures of human impacts, pre- and post-restoration bleaching risk, coral diversity, remoteness, or type of restoration could explain why a project was successful or not.”

Lead author Clelia Mulà adds: “Reinforcing complementary strategies could therefore bolster ecosystem resilience, extending the reach and success of coral restoration projects.”

Coral Reef Restoration Outcome [VIDEO] | 

Video explains new research that shows one-third of coral reef restoration projects are failing. Even succesful restorations cannot offset the loss from climate change.

Journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-025-02667-x 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Restoration cannot be scaled up globally to save reefs from loss and degradation

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 

Tech-assisted peer therapy effective for perinatal depression in lower income countries

University of Liverpool

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A University of Liverpool study conducted in rural Pakistan in partnership with the Human Development Research Foundation and the Health Services Academy has demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel, technology-assisted intervention for perinatal depression.

Perinatal mental health is one of the most pressing and under-addressed global health challenges, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This research, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will help to address this global priority.

One in four women in LMICs suffers from perinatal depression, a condition linked to disability, maternal suicide, and long-term developmental harm to children. Despite decades of concern voiced by child development experts and human rights advocates, access to effective treatment remains poor, with a treatment gap estimated between 75% and 90% in these settings.

In response to this urgent need, University researchers developed an innovative intervention that combines peer-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with a co-produced digital app. The intervention leverages the lived experience of local mothers from the community with no formal healthcare training, to deliver support. This complements a culturally adapted, animated digital platform. The Technology-assisted Peer-delivered Thinking Healthy Programme (THP-TAP) app automates key CBT elements using avatars and storytelling to ensure consistent quality and reliability, while peers focus on human interaction, delivering empathy, encouragement, and vital social support.

The results, now published in Nature Medicine, show this novel intervention to be as effective as standard cognitive behaviour therapy in treating perinatal depression, with women receiving the peer-delivered intervention experiencing significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms at three months postnatal.

Atif Rahman, Professor of Child Psychiatry and Global Mental Health at the University of Liverpool said: “Our research shows that combining human empathy with technological innovation can deliver effective mental health care even in resource-constrained settings. This offers a fresh perspective on how we approach maternal mental health in LMICs.”

The model offers several advantages for scale-up. By using peer mothers as co-therapists, the intervention taps into a sustainable human resource. The App ensures that essential therapeutic content is delivered accurately without constant specialist supervision. Moreover, the intervention was found to be cost-effective and culturally acceptable, with high uptake and no evidence that stigma deterred participation.

Importantly, the study is believed to be the first to demonstrate the robust effectiveness of a lived-experience peer and digital App working in tandem as co-therapists for perinatal depression in a low-resource setting. Researchers believe the model holds promise for closing the quality gap that has long hindered task-sharing approaches in global mental health.

As LMICs continue to grapple with the severe shortage of mental health specialists, this innovation could offer a scalable, affordable, and community-driven solution to one of the most urgent threats to maternal and child health.

This research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), using international development funding from the UK Government to support Global Health Research.

The paper, ‘Technology-assisted cognitive-behavioural therapy for perinatal depression delivered by lived-experience peers: a cluster-randomized noninferiority trial’ is published in Nature Medicine: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03655-1

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Journal

Nature Medicine

Subject of Research

People

 

Scientists make water-repellent breakthrough to replace toxic ‘forever chemicals’

University of Bristol

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A team of international scientists has invented a substitute for synthetic chemicals, called PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), which are widely used in everyday products despite being hazardous to health and the environment.

Until now, it was believed fluorine – the element in such products which forms a highly effective barrier between substances like air and water, making them water repellent – could not easily be replaced because of its unique properties.

But scientists, from the University of Bristol in the UK, Hirosaki University, Japan, and Université Côte d’Azur, France have discovered that the unique ‘bulky’ attribute of fluorine, which makes it especially good at filling space, can actually be replicated in a different, non-toxic form.

Co-lead author Professor Julian Eastoe, from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, said: “From fire-fighting foam to furniture, food packaging and cookware, to make-up and toilet tissue, PFAS products are everywhere. Despite the risks to human health, and the fact they don’t degrade, perfluoroalkyl substances persist in the environment, finding an alternative with comparable properties has proven elusive. But after many years of intensive research, we’ve made a great breakthrough.”

The results of their discovery are published in a study, which unpacks the chemical structure of PFAS and pinpoints the characteristic ‘bulkiness’ they sought to replicate in a safer form. It also demonstrates how non-fluorinated components, containing only non-toxic carbon and hydrogen, could be equally effective replacements.

Prof Eastoe said: “Through extensive experimentation, it turns out these ‘bulky’ fragments feature in other common chemical systems like fats and fuels. So we took those principles and created modified chemicals, which have these positive attributes and are also much safer.

“Using our specialised laboratories for chemical synthesis, we substituted the fluorine in PFAS with certain groups containing only carbon and hydrogen. The whole process has taken about 10 years and the implications are very significant not least because PFAS is used in so many different products and situations.”

The researchers now plan on using these principles discovered in the lab to design commercially viable versions of PFAS substitutes.

Co-author Professor Frédéric Guittard, from the Université Côte d’Azur, Nice said: “These new results are of great interest for industrial and academic researchers. We are now working with companies in France and China to bring these ideas to market.”  

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Journal

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

Article Title

‘New fluorine-free low surface energy surfactants and surfaces’

 

In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history

A newly discovered altar, buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal, is shedding new light on the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan

Brown University

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala, a global team of researchers including scholars from Brown University have unearthed a buried altar that could unlock the secrets of a mysterious time of upheaval in the ancient world.

The altar, built around the late 300s A.D., is decorated with four painted panels of red, black and yellow depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia. The face has almond-shaped eyes, a nose bar and a double earspool. It closely resembles other depictions of a deity dubbed the “Storm God” in central Mexico.

In a study released on Tuesday, April 8, in Antiquity, the Brown researchers, along with co-authors from across the United States and Guatemala, argue that the painted altar wasn’t the work of a Maya artist. Instead, they believe it was created by a highly skilled artisan trained at Teotihuacan — the formidable ancient power whose seat was located 630 miles west, outside modern-day Mexico City.

“It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of social science, anthropology, and history of art and architecture at Brown, who co-authored the paper. “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city. It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.”

Even before discovering the altar, Houston and colleagues knew the Maya interacted with Teotihuacan for centuries before their relationship became closer.

Founded in about 850 B.C., Tikal existed for generations as a small city with little influence before ballooning into a dynasty around 100 A.D. Archaeologists have evidence that Tikal and the much more powerful Teotihuacan began interacting regularly about two centuries later. What seemed at first to be a casual trading relationship, Houston said, quickly became something more contentious.

“It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said. “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.”

An ancient coup d’etat

Houston said that over several decades, scholars have collected mounting evidence of a less-than-friendly relationship. The research started in the 1960s, when archaeologists found a cut and mutilated stone with well-preserved text describing the conflict in broad terms. 

Thanks to the stone’s text, they learned that “around A.D. 378, Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said. “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling, a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.”

Decades later, using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, the Brown scholars and several colleagues discovered a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan citadel just outside the center of Tikal, buried under what archaeologists believed were natural hills. The discovery suggested that in the years leading up to its overthrow, Teotihuacan’s presence in the Maya city probably involved an element of occupation or surveillance.

Co-author Andrew Scherer, a professor of anthropology and of archaeology and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, said the altar was built right around the time of the coup. He said the altar’s meticulously painted exterior isn’t the only evidence of the capital’s heavy-handed presence: Inside the altar, the archaeologists found a child buried in a seated position, a rare practice at Tikal but common at Teotihuacan. They also found an adult interred with a dart point made of green obsidian; Scherer said the material and design of the dart point are distinct to Teotihuacan.

The fact that the altar and the area around it was later buried, Scherer said, cements the research team’s theory that Teotihuacan’s presence left Tikal forever changed and even scarred.

“The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Scherer said. “But here, they buried the altar and surrounding buildings and just left them, even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later. They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone. It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.”

Power begets power

“Complicated” is an apt way to describe Tikal’s collective memory of the Teotihuacan coup, Houston said. The event may have shaken Tikal to its core, but it ultimately made the kingdom more powerful: Over the next few centuries, Tikal rose to yet greater heights, becoming a nearly unmatched dynasty before eventually declining around 900 A.D., along with the rest of the Maya world.

“There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time, when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said. “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully. Even when they were in decline, they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.”

As they uncover more details about the contentious story of Teotihuacan and Tikal, Houston and Scherer said they’re both struck by how familiar it sounds: An all-powerful empire spots paradise and decides to plunder its riches.

“Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston said. “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time. These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth, of special feathers from tropical birds, jade and chocolate. As far as Teotihuacan was concerned, it was the land of milk and honey.” 

Along with Houston and Scherer, authors of the study include Edwin Román Ramírez, Lorena Paiz Aragón, Alejandrina Corado Ochoa, Cristina García Leal and Rony E. Piedrasanta Castellanos of the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal; Angelyn Bass of the University of New Mexico; Thomas G. Garrison and David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin; and Heather Hurst of Skidmore College. Funding for the research came in part from the PACUNAM Lidar Initiative and the Hitz Foundation.

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Journal

Antiquity

DOI

10.15184/aqy.2025.3 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 

Urinals without splashback

PNAS Nexus

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Three-dimensional renderings of urinals. From left to right: Duchamp’s “La Fontaine,” a contemporary commercial model, Cornucopia, and Nautilus.

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Credit: Thurairajah et al

A urinal designed to avoid urine splashback on the user and the floor will improve sanitation, bathroom cleanliness, and user experience.

Urinal designs have not materially changed in over a century. The style of urinal that was elevated to the status of artistic landmark by Marcel Duchamp in his 1917 dada art piece “La Fontaine” would not look out of place in today’s public restrooms. Use of a typical public urinal often results in splatter of urine outside the confines of the device—onto the floor and, most unpleasantly, onto the user, a situation that creates costly messes to clean and risks transmitting disease. Zhao Pan, Kaveeshan Thurairajah, and colleagues calculated that when the flow of urine impinges on the surface of the fixture at 30◦ or less, splashback is greatly reduced. Experimental results confirmed this. The authors then designed urinals by solving differential equations, dubbed Cornucopia and Nautilus, which have impinging angles at or below 30◦ across their entire area. The Nautilus design has an additional advantage: it fits a range of urination heights, making it easier for children and people who use wheelchairs to use. According to the authors, if the 56 million urinals in public restrooms in the US were replaced with the Nautilus, it would prevent one million liters of urine from splashing onto the floor each day.

Urine angles [VIDEO] | 

A high-speed video depicting the tests used to measure the critical angle. Three impinging angles are shown (left to right: 90◦,60◦, and 30◦, respectively).

Credit

Thurairajah et al.

Journal

PNAS Nexus

Article Title

Splash-free urinals for global sustainability and accessibility: Design through physics and differential equations

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025