Plans for cycle routes to school in Baden-Württemberg
The accident risk of cycling children increases dramatically with the transition to secondary school. The federal state of Baden-Württemberg has therefore made the creation of plans for cycle routes to school a priority in the state. To this end, the State Office for Spatial Information and Land Development Baden-Württemberg (LGL) has developed a web-enabled geoinformation system (WebGIS). This system is based on the actual routes taken by school children. It also incorporates the students’ local knowledge regarding problematic areas on these cycle paths. The Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) evaluated the subsequent pilot project entitled “Designing plans for cycle routes to school using the WebGIS tool” to establish whether it would be practicable to introduce it throughout Baden-Württemberg.
Within the scope of this evaluation WebGIS proved to be a suitable method for the large-scale production of well-founded plans for cycle routes to school. It is therefore fair to assume that this instrument will contribute to increased safety for cycling students. Because the procedure was further developed and optimised concurrently with its evaluation, implementation is now beginning across the state of Baden-Württemberg. The aim is to equip all secondary schools with a plan for cycle routes to school by the year 2020.