Number of the Month 17
Every morning the same chaos: traffic jams of parents’ “taxis” outside schools, the children weaving through bumpers and wing mirrors to get to their classes.
There is a high risk of accidents outside primary schools in particular. This can be seen from a forsa survey from 2022. It was commissioned by the Verband Bildung und Erziehung [Education Association] (VBE), the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk [Children’s Welfare Organisation] (DKHW) and the Verkehrsclub Deutschland [Traffic Club of Germany] (VCD).
Drive-In School
17 per cent of parents take their children to school by car. 17 per cent – that doesn’t sound very much at first. But if you image 170 cars crowding round an inner-city school with 1,000 pupils, the risks become clearer. Especially since the parents drive as close to the entrance as possible and then endanger those children who arrive on foot or on a scooter. In fact, almost a third of teachers say that they have experienced a dangerous situation and near-misses outside school at least once a week thanks to this pick-up and drop-off traffic. So, it’s hardly surprising that schools are becoming creative in arming themselves against the parents’ drive-in mentality: by setting up “Kiss and Goodbye” zones or tip-offs to the traffic police to come round more often in the mornings.
17% of children are driven to school. Given 1,000 pupils, that’s 170 cars queuing up outside school!
Why don’t children go to school on their own?
When asked for the main reasons why children are taken to school by car, teachers and parents give very similar answers:
Perceived higher traffic volumes
What is noticeable is that when asked how many children are regularly taken to school by car, 66 percent of teachers and as many as 80 percent of parents estimate that this is the case for at least 25 percent of children. The traffic volume is therefore “perceived” to be much higher than it is according to their own information. This illustrates that everyone can see that too many cars are driving outside schools at the same time in the mornings and that there is a high potential of risk for the children.
Safe route to school
According to the survey, parents and teachers agree that, in principle, children should be encouraged to go to school independently. That takes care of exercise, independence, and more contact with others. Only, routes to school must be made safer for this – everyone involved agrees on this. There is a shortage of clear footpaths, safe crossings, cycle paths.
Incidentally: in the 1970s, 90 percent of all primary school children went to school on foot.
forsa survey “Safe Route to School” [in German]:
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