Safe routes to school for children: KGS Kupfergasse calls for school streets!

Safe routes to school for children: KGS Kupfergasse calls for school streets!

In Urbach, the safety of school children is very important. On KGS Kupfergasse, posters and banners call for “children on bikes”, “safety for everyone” and the establishment of a “school street”. The school community shows that the high number of parent taxis and parking despite the ban on parking in front of the school are a serious problem. Children have to move between parked vehicles, endangering their safety. A concept for setting up a school street is intended to remedy this by closing the street to car traffic for half an hour at the start of school and before the end of school. Exceptions apply to residents, teachers, school buses and taxis.

The need for such a measure was unanimously supported by the Porz district council. The city administration has already been commissioned to initiate the necessary measures at short notice and to intensify contact with the school community. Despite the positive developments, the SPD points out that several school streets have already been decided upon that have not yet been implemented, such as at GGS Poller Hauptstraße and the Friedrich Liszt Elementary School. According to the administration, the implementation of a school street requires an average processing period of around eight months due to a lack of positions.

Similar measures across the country

Similar approaches are also being pursued in other cities, such as Frankfurt. There, the city is closing the direct access roads in front of several schools to prevent “parent taxis”. This measure aims to increase road safety for students and promote walking and cycling. As part of a year-long pilot project, streets will be closed one hour before classes start in the morning to allow students safe access. Existing parking spaces nearby will be converted into parking spaces.
The Hessian mobility department head Wolfgang Siefert (Greens) also emphasizes that the narrow streets in front of the schools often lead to dangerous situations. In 2025, 4,764 children in Hesse had an accident on the way to daycare or school, which underlines the need for such measures. Experts recommend school streets as an effective solution for reducing conflicts in pick-up and drop-off traffic.

The topic has broad support beyond municipal boundaries. A new legal opinion and a guide to the legally secure implementation of school streets have been published, with the hope of thinking about mobility from the perspective of children and making school routes safer. Countries such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have already published corresponding recommendations for action to establish school streets as part of a comprehensive school route network. The aim is to guarantee safe access to schools and to increase the speed limits on school routes.

As part of a themed week on mobility and safety, the KGS Kupfergasse once again drew attention to the importance of school streets with a fairy light run. The school community remains optimistic that improvements will soon come, especially after the city announced a total review of 40 potentially suitable school street locations.

A much-needed movement to improve road safety for schoolchildren is thus underway. The current situation shows that mobility and safety are closely linked and that the demands for more school streets require broad support. While there is still a fight to be done at the local level, initial approaches are emerging at the state level.

For more information on this topic, we recommend the articles from Cologne City Gazette, Hesse show and Children's bike.