Swiss parents call for safer routes to school

41% of parents with children aged four to seven say the journey to school is dangerous, according to a survey published on September 7, 2026. The finding puts pressure on Swiss municipalities to examine the short routes that children take each morning, from residential streets to school gates.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by the Transport and Environment Association, known by its French acronym ATE, and the Road Safety Fund, questioned 800 parents across Switzerland. Most children in the country walk to school, the survey found, making the design and management of those routes a daily public safety issue.

Parents identified particular risks where children must cross roads with speed limits of 50 km/h or more. Such crossings can place young children in fast moving traffic before they have developed the judgement and road awareness needed to assess danger consistently.

The ATE is asking local authorities to create continuous footpaths, improve pedestrian crossings, reduce speed limits and enforce existing rules. The organisation also wants municipalities to support walking bus schemes, which give children a supervised way to walk together while longer term infrastructure changes are planned.

85% of children cross a road with a speed limit of 50 km/h or more on their way to school, the survey found. The figure helps explain why parents focus on crossings and road speeds when describing the risks facing younger pupils.

A four year old walking a familiar route still has limited experience judging vehicle speed, distance and gaps in traffic. A seven year old may manage more of the journey independently, yet busy crossings can remain difficult, especially where footpaths are narrow, visibility is poor or vehicles approach at speed. The source survey does not identify individual roads or municipalities, so it cannot show which specific locations carry the greatest risk.

Its findings do show that road design affects how families view independent travel. Parents expect local authorities to provide safe footpaths and secure pedestrian crossings, alongside lower limits and rigorous enforcement. These demands cover both physical infrastructure and driver behaviour.

For municipalities, the practical task is to map the routes children actually use, rather than focusing only on formal school entrances. A safer network must connect homes, crossings and school grounds in a way that works during the morning rush.

Parents in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino rated school route safety significantly worse than parents in other regions, according to the survey. The result points to a national concern with important local differences, although the published findings do not provide a canton by canton breakdown or explain the causes of the regional gap.

Municipalities face different street layouts, traffic patterns and settlement structures. A child walking to school in a dense town may encounter multilane roads and frequent turning traffic. In a village or suburban area, the challenge may be a long stretch without a pavement or a crossing on a road that carries traffic between communities. The survey does not rank these conditions, but it underlines the need for local assessments rather than a single national solution.

The ATE wants local authorities to combine safer pavements with crossings that children can use confidently. Lower speed limits and consistent enforcement are also part of the request. Parents expect authorities to act on the routes used every day, particularly in areas where safety perceptions are weakest.

The next step for municipalities is to involve families, schools and road safety specialists when identifying problem points and setting priorities.

Walking buses offer a measure that municipalities can expand quickly, while permanent changes to roads and crossings may take longer. In these schemes, adults accompany groups of children along a fixed route, collecting pupils at agreed meeting points and walking them to school together.

The approach gives younger children supervision and helps families who do not yet feel comfortable allowing them to travel alone. It can also make the safest available route more visible to a neighbourhood, while schools and municipalities gather evidence for larger infrastructure projects. The survey source does not report how many walking buses currently operate in Switzerland or measure their effect on collisions, so the proposal remains a practical recommendation rather than a quantified national programme.

The ATE links independent walking with health, classroom attention and the gradual development of road safety skills. Those benefits depend on routes that children can navigate safely. Parents' concerns therefore reach beyond one morning commute. They affect whether children gain experience walking, whether families choose cars, and how municipalities allocate space on local streets.

Swiss authorities now have a clear set of requests from families: build continuous footpaths, protect crossings, lower speeds where appropriate, enforce the rules and support supervised walking groups.