The accident risk for children cycling to school increases considerably with the transition to secondary schools. Therefore the federal state of Baden-Württemberg developed a process to create maps for cycle routes to school. The computer assisted WebGIS tool enables the most important planning steps to create maps for cycle routes to school, from surveying the information provided by pupils in the classrooms, passing on information on cycle routes and the difficulties to the local authorities to the designation of safe cycle routes to school. 31 secondary schools in 14 municipalities participated in the pilot project. The present study examined the pilot project entitled "Creating a plan for cycle routes to school using the WebGIS tool" in terms of its practicability, with the objective of introducing it throughout the federal state. A written survey of about 1,800 pupils and 70 teachers and telephone interviews with employees from 13 municipalities showed that it is possible to create plans for cycle routes to schools on the basis of the project concept. The implementation concept and the software are assessed as associated with some effort and being purposeful. Traffic education at schools will also benefit from this project. Teachers and pupils as well as representatives from the municipalities recommend further implementation. Based on the evaluation, an optimisation potential could be derived with regard to the project structure, the further development of the software of the WebGIS tool, the improvement of the database and the municipal involvement. In addition to the creation of these maps for cycle routes to school, the project leads to an improvement in the infrastructure for cyclists in the areas surrounding secondary schools and to the intensification of mobility traffic education at secondary schools (handling of cartographic material, dealing with the structural environment, municipal involvement, and perception of dangers). Simultaneously with the evaluation, the process was further developed and optimized so that it is now being implemented throughout Baden-Württemberg. By 2020 all secondary schools are to be equipped with a map of cycle routes. (Author/publisher)
Abstract