The Safe Route to School” initiative in Hemelingen fights against parent taxis!

The Safe Route to School” initiative in Hemelingen fights against parent taxis!

It's that time again in Bremen: School starts on Thursday and many parents of first graders are faced with the big question of how they can bring their children to school safely. Unfortunately, this leads many families to use the car, which not only increases traffic on the streets, but also leads to dangerous situations at primary schools, especially in the districts of Hemelingen, Vahr and Osterholz. A network in Hemelingen called “Safe Route to School” has been actively campaigning for more safety in front of primary schools for years and has already developed many solutions. According to that Weser courier The network motivates parents to leave the car behind and at the same time puts pressure on the administration.

This year, the network took a further step and informed the parents of future primary school students about the topic of “safe routes to school” via daycare centers. The Osterhop and Parsevalstraße primary schools are particularly affected by the initiative, as confusing and dangerous situations often arise here in everyday life. One issue that concerns many parents is turning around in front of schools, which further complicates the situation. To increase children's safety, the network plans to introduce school streets that are closed to car traffic for certain periods of time.

School streets for more safety

School streets are already common in many European countries. However, in Germany there have been concerns about legal implementation in the past. Since a change to the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) in October 2024, school streets can be set up without proof of a specific danger. Deutschlandfunk reports that the “School Express”, which enables children to go to school together, is not well connected everywhere and still ensures more security.

There is also an unclear regulation regarding the speed limit on Parsevalstrasse, which encourages many parents to rush and increases the danger for children. Currently, around a quarter of parents bring their children to school by car, which in one study the journey to school was identified as one of the main problems: 86% of those surveyed were against primary school children traveling to school by car.

Traffic experts agree: Children are safest when they walk to school. Nevertheless, an estimated 43% of parents have reasons for this, which is also shown in a Forsa survey, according to which 23% of parents bring their children to school by car. The network and committed parents continue to work to ensure that the right mobility is promoted in order to make the journey to school safer for the little ones.

Everyday life and legal situation

The Office for Roads and Transport in Bremen is closely following other cities' considerations regarding school streets. However, due to the existing legal situation, temporary closures in Bremen cannot currently be implemented. The mobility department In Bremen, the school streets concept has not yet been pursued further and instead refers to measures such as the pedestrian traffic check and the school route booklet to increase the safety of children.

We can only hope that the newly created legal situation will soon bear fruit and school streets in Bremen will become a reality. Ultimately, the well-being of the children is our responsibility and together we can improve the conditions for their journeys to school.