Implementation

The snake game has originally been developed by Langzaam Verkeer within MOST: Mobility Management Strategies for the next Decades. In Flanders, this was a huge success: 300 schools play it each year. Within EMOTIONS, the snake game has been imported to the Netherlands and tested at 14 schools in Breda.

The snake game is played with all pupils of a primary school at a specially dedicated thematic week. In this week the pupils have to come to school by foot or bike as much as possible. Doing so they can earn a sticker that will be put on a big banner. This banner has got the image of a snake on it.

The objective for the school is to fill in the whole snake. When this target is reached all children win a prize. The opening of the traffic week with a famous Dutch pop idol attracted much publicity - In total, almost 4.500 children and their parents were reached. The project has lasted 10 weeks and has run at 3 schools at the same time in one week.

The modal split is measured 3 times. Once two to three weeks before the thematic week, the second time during the thematic week and the third time 4 or 5 weeks after the thematic week. The first measurement serves as a basis to set the goals, that the school wants to reach: In general a primary school in the Netherlands has got a share of foot and bike of 70%. For most schools the target is set to 80 to 85% usage of foot and bike. After setting the goals a formula based on the target percentage, the number of children and the modal split calculates the number of stickers needed.