Yannik waves to his mother once more before walking down the road that leads to the historic village centre of Wangen near Brüttisellen ZH. Five roads intersect here. There is a lot of traffic. Wangen is a popular shortcut to avoid the traffic jam around the Brüttisellen junction. The 6-year-old waits a long time until a gap opens up and he can change sides of the road. Yannik's route to school would actually be just the way you want it: through the centre of the village, past half-timbered houses and well-tended gardens. But the through traffic turns the idyllic walk into a daily traffic lesson. Nevertheless, his mum lets him walk alone, even though she is not entirely comfortable with it. "Yannik is a very sensible child. I'll probably have to accompany his little brother for longer," she says with foresight.

For many children, walking to school is the only opportunity to move around without supervision, to socialise with their peers, make friends or argue. But it also offers the opportunity to take a break from the school day and get ready for home. But it demands a lot from younger children in particular. They have to find their own way to school, get there on time and look after themselves. The journey to school is much more than just the distance between home and school, it is a place of learning.

That's one side of it. The other side becomes clear when you look at the statistics: according to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu), around 400 children are victims of road accidents on the way to school every year. On average, two children die. The greatest individual risk is borne by 5 to 9-year-olds as pedestrians and 10 to 14-year-olds as cyclists. It is therefore not surprising that parents ask themselves the question in the months before their child starts school: How will our child get to and from school safely? The biggest concern is road traffic. Are there busy roads to cross? Are there any blind junctions? Is our child sensible enough to manoeuvre safely past the cars? And how considerate and attentive are the drivers?

Traffic expert Pascal Regli notes that Swiss-German school routes are relatively safe in a national comparison. Regli heads the "Safe routes to school" project at Fussverkehr Schweiz and is aware of parents' concerns. "How great the danger and parents' concerns are is directly reflected in the so-called parent taxis. In French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, the proportion of children who are driven to school is much higher than in German-speaking Switzerland," he explains. In German-speaking Switzerland, for example, less than 10 per cent of children are taken to and from school by car every day. But the proportion is increasing.

Parent taxis are the most hotly debated topic in connection with travelling to and from school. Official bodies such as the Zurich cantonal police generally advise against parental taxi services, as do transport organisations such as the TCS. This is because it is a misconception that
children are safer travelling by car. On the one hand, statistics show that children are more often victims of road accidents in cars than on foot. On the other hand, cars manoeuvring back and forth in front of schools endanger the children travelling there. Various school administrators are therefore appealing to parents to refrain from driving. The Aargau municipality of Muri has even banned cars from stopping around the school buildings.

Some educational campaigns are therefore aimed not only at parents and children, but above all at car drivers, such as the TCS campaign "Bike stops, child walks". Because what many drivers don't consider is that adults standing at pedestrian crossings usually recognise that a car is braking, that the distance is large enough to reach the other side of the road before the approaching vehicle - children lack the eye and experience for this. "If drivers know that the child will only move off when the car has stopped, there will be no misunderstandings," emphasises Helmut Gierer from TCS.

However, anyone who drives on the roads every day knows that this message has not yet reached all road users. So what should be done? Driving children to school in their own car is one response to the dangers. Another would be to do something to mitigate them - for example, by parents asking the local authorities to make the route to school safer. This could be structural changes or a pilot service at particularly tricky points. If the municipal or school authorities have to take action, it takes longer, but the solution then also serves the coming year groups. The problem for many parents, however, is that they cannot wait for a solution. Their child has to go to school now, they have to cross the dangerous road today.

So if you don't want to wait, you can organise something privately, for example with a so-called pedibus: one mother or father accompanies the children of several families at a time. The children's train has fixed departure times so that parents know when their daughter or son has to be at the agreed place to join the pedibus. However, all escort services have one disadvantage: The children do not learn to cope with the traffic themselves, as it is the accompanying adult who makes sure that nothing happens. The statement of a first-grader from Adliswil ZH is telling: "When I walk alone, I keep an eye out. When we walk in the pedibus, we make nonsense."

Many studies have come to the conclusion that children learn most when they are on their own, be it on the way to school or during free play. "Children become independent and autonomous when they explore their home and school environment on their own," as educational scientist Maria Limbourg wrote more than ten years ago.
Six-year-old Yannik has learnt a lot on his new 700-metre walk to school. He crosses busy roads as a matter of course and knows the safer side of a road without a pavement. He navigates the neighbourhood streets effortlessly and knows where to turn. Even when he is joined by mates on the way, he keeps an eye on the cars speeding through the village. This way, Yannik looks years older than when he is romping around with his little brother.

Children who are only driven in cars or walk under supervision miss out on this. They miss out on insights and memories that may stay with them for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, parents have a sense of security. After all, they bear the responsibility. Ultimately, it is up to mums and dads to decide how much they trust their child to do - and when and where.

This article is from our special edition "Schöne Schulzeit", which is aimed specifically at parents whose children are about to start primary school. You can order the magazine here , or take a look at the table of contents first.