Bonn/Berlin, 03.06.2025
Poor visibility, speeding cars and a lack of cycle paths: the Initiative for Safe Roads and the ecological transport club VCD are calling on families to enter dangerous spots on the way to school for their children, grandchildren or siblings on a map of Germany. The results will be evaluated at federal and state level in order to highlight risks and increase pressure on decision-makers.
On the occasion of Bicycle Day, the Initiative for Safe Roads and the VCD are compiling danger spots on children’s routes. Until the end of July, parents and other interested parties can enter high-risk locations on the virtual map of Germany at schulwege.de. The data will then be analyzed anonymously and the results will be published in September. In this way, the associations want to draw attention to shortcomings in transport policy, initiate changes at local level and call for reforms at federal level. After all, we all benefit from safe routes to school and a child-friendly transport system!
Anika Meenken, spokesperson for mobility education at the VCD: “No child should have to be afraid to walk or cycle to school. Every reported danger spot is a step towards safer routes. In this way, everyone can help to make risks visible and build political pressure for the necessary changes. Our children need safe routes to school – and politicians must finally take action.”
If you want to report a dangerous section of road, you can choose between different types of danger, e.g. “blind spot”, “poor road conditions” or “driver misconduct”. You must then specify who is at risk: Pedestrians or cyclists. In the next step, the hazard trigger can be determined depending on the type of hazard, e.g. restricted visibility or excessive speed.
“Whether school, local authority or individual – everyone can get involved and contribute to safer routes to school,” explains Arno Wolter, Managing Director of the Initiative for Safe Roads. All reported danger spots, together with other factors such as accident data and data from vehicles, are incorporated into the school route routing developed by the initiative: “Parents can use the schulwege.de portal to calculate the safest route from home to school and then practise this with their children,” says Wolter.
With the virtual hazard map, the Initiative for Safe Roads and the VCD are creating a strong basis for highlighting specific shortcomings and initiating political change. After all, safe routes to school should be a matter of course.
Further information:
The Germany-wide school route routing for parents and children is part of the digital school route planner on schulwege.de, which local authorities and schools can also use to create individual school route plans.
You can find everything you need to know about the school route check here.
As part of the “On foot to school” project, the VCD, together with the German Children’s Fund and the Association for Education and Upbringing (VBE), organizes annual action days on the subject of independent travel to school and safe infrastructure for children.
The project “Ride a bike for the climate on tour ” by the VCD in cooperation with AKTIONfahrRAD is aimed primarily at young people, who are to be encouraged to cycle by means of a competition to collect kilometers.
On the VCD website you will also find a legal opinion and a guide to setting up school streets, as well as a good-practice collection of pedestrian and bicycle-friendly schools .
Press contact:
Initiative für sichere Straßen GmbH Jörn Wolter Phone: 0228-76386900 presse@sichere-strassen.org
VCD Jan Langehein, Anne Fröhlich – Phone 030/280351-12 – presse@vcd.org – www.vcd.org
The Initiative for Safe Roads has been campaigning for Vision Zero since 2014. The aim is to significantly increase road safety in order to sustainably protect vulnerable road users in particular, to raise awareness of road safety and to promote the traffic turnaround. To this end, the Safe Roads Initiative is developing innovative digital tools for use on the web and in apps. In this context, the schulwege.de platform was also launched, where parents can use an intuitive routing application to find and then practise safe routes to school for their children. The Initiative for Safe Roads would like to recommend the school route planner to parents, teachers and local authorities as a further contribution to improving road safety for children and young people.
The ecological transport club VCD is a non-profit environmental association that campaigns for environmentally friendly, safe and healthy mobility. The focus is on people with their needs and wishes for a mobile life. Since 1986, the VCD has been fighting for a fair and sustainable coexistence of all people on the road – regardless of whether they are traveling on foot, by bike, by bus and train or by car. To this end, it works locally with twelve regional associations and around 140 district associations and local groups, networked throughout Germany and Europe. More than 50,000 members, donors and activists support the VCD’s work for sustainable mobility.