School route safety perceptions of primary school children and their parents: Effects of transportation mode and infrastructure

Active school travel has been associated with a wide range of psychological and physiological benefits. However, many parents (particularly those of primary school children) are concerned about their children’s safety due to traffic and urban infrastructure. In this research, we collected information about the geographical school routes, the transportation mode, and the accompaniment status of children of a German primary school. Children and their parents also rated the overall safety of the entire school route. Our findings underline that even primary school children can travel actively to school (about two-thirds in our sample) if the routes to school are short enough and consist of a comparatively safe infrastructure. Children rated their school routes to be significantly safer than their parents did. Furthermore, we found evidence for differences with regard to specific aspects: For example, parents’ (but not children’s) safety perceptions are enhanced by a higher proportion of streets with reduced speed limits. Given that parents who feel the school route is unsafe are less likely to allow their child to travel to school alone, traffic calming measures appear one measure suitable to accommodate their concerns. In contrast to traffic-related issues as the subjectively most prevalent hazard, our survey points toward single-person crashes as a more common case that may be rather underestimated by parents.