Generali survey on children starting school:

How do parents in Switzerland feel about their children’s safety on their route to school?

• 58% say they teach their child about road safety in the context of their route to school
• 84% worry about road accidents, one third have already experienced dangerous situations
• 28% worry about other children bullying their children

Adliswil – A survey by Generali Insurances shows that parents take their children’s safety on their route to school very seriously. The topic is especially relevant at present, with over 150,000 children in Switzerland attending kindergarten or school for the first time. Some of these children will be negotiating the roads on their own, without their parents there to supervise and help them.

Over half of parents actively seek to maximise their children’s safety on their journey to school. They take various actions to ensure that their children get to school safely. This includes teaching and practising road safety with the children (58%), using fluorescent or reflective items (55%) and keeping to safe or familiar routes (52%). One in six people surveyed also use technical tools such as GPS trackers or mobile phone emergency call features.

Fear of road accidents or abduction

Over half of those surveyed are worried about letting their child walk to school alone. They are most afraid of road accidents (84%) and abduction or assault (62%). 28% fear their children being bullied by other children.

Parents worry most about the children crossing roads and encountering strangers

When asked what they consider the most dangerous aspects of their child’s journey to school, 58% named crossing roads in general, with 43% being especially concerned about roads with a lot of traffic. More than half also perceive strangers as a danger.

Parents are more reassured by shorter journeys to school

The survey found that short kindergarten and school journeys are considered safer than longer ones. For example, 38% of parents with children who have between 500 metres and one kilometre to get to school feel confident about the safety aspect. For school routes longer than two kilometres, the figure is only 10%. It is interesting to note that where distances to school are short, parents living in cities feel better about the safety aspect than those in rural areas.

Parents comparing the safety aspect with that of their own childhoods reveal some interesting findings: When asked whether they considered their child’s route to school today less safe than when they were growing up, a whole 40% answered “yes”. Only 13% consider the route today to be safer. 47% thought the route was approximately the same in terms of safety.

Going by foot is the no.1 means of getting to school

How do children get to school or kindergarten? Around two thirds of children go by foot. 15% are taken to school by car, while the rest travel by bike, school bus or other forms of public transport. Health and fitness as well as accessibility were each quoted by 36% as reasons for choosing this travel method – ahead of the safety aspect, cited by 27%.

Justifiable concerns: about 1/3 of respondents have experienced dangerous situations

30% of respondents reported that they or their children had already experienced worrying or dangerous situations on the way to kindergarten or school. The most common specific examples given were drivers not paying attention or driving too fast, as well as not braking at zebra crossings.

Some respondents also reported negative experiences of drivers overtaking cars that were waiting at zebra crossings while children were crossing the road. Some also experienced hazardous situations at roadworks where traffic was diverted, making the situation more complicated for pedestrians than usual. Another risk arose both through other children (bullying) and also through strangers approaching the children.

Parents welcome road safety training to improve safety for their children

Despite the fact that, as mentioned above, parents already actively engage in teaching their children about road safety, the survey shows that parents would definitely welcome other measures to increase safety on the journey to school. 62% believe road safety training for children would be useful, and 59% are in favour of traffic calming near schools and kindergartens (e.g. 30 km/h or lower).

The above-mentioned survey was based on a quantitative online survey conducted with the market research institute Bilendi, Zurich. The survey period was 12 to 16 July 2024. The respondent quotas are based on a representative distribution for the target group “Parents with children aged 4-11” (sample of 521 people).