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School Route Champions: New initiative for safe streets for children!
On Child Safety Day 2025, the ACV initiative “School Route Champions” promotes road safety for children through learning books.
School Route Champions: New initiative for safe streets for children!
On June 10, 2025, the focus is on Child Safety Day, an important occasion to raise awareness of the safety of our little ones on the road. In this context, the ACV Automobile Club Verkehr launched the “School Route Champions” initiative. The aim is to introduce children to traffic rules in a playful way and to teach them how to use traffic safely. According to the Braunschweiger Zeitung, a total of 27,235 road traffic accidents involving children under 15 were recorded in 2023. Although this number shows a decline compared to the early 1990s, the safety of children on the roads remains a pressing issue.
A central component of the “School Path Champions” initiative is a newly developed learning booklet for children aged five to eight. This booklet, which was created in collaboration with the Cologne police, teaches important traffic rules in a playful way. It accompanies the children on an exciting journey with the mascot Pavo through various traffic situations. In addition to basic rules of conduct, more complex scenarios are also covered, supplemented by picture stories, coloring pages and puzzles. Parents receive valuable tips on promoting their children's traffic skills.
Parents and mobility: reaching the goal together
The role of parents is important when it comes to traffic education. A Forsa survey shows that 23% of parents bring their children to school by car. Traffic expert Simon Höhner points out that children are safest when they go to school on foot. Nevertheless, a phenomenon has crept in that is known as the “backseat generation”. The main reasons for this are the commute and lack of time, which increases the dangers for children in front of schools, as explained in Deutschlandfunk.
This is where the ACV initiative comes in by also promoting access to learning materials that are available for free. This school primer is not only distributed free of charge in Cologne, but can also be ordered from the ACV shop in class sets of 30 copies. The magazine is also available for download on the ACV website, also in several foreign languages and in a version in Cologne.
Promoting safe mobility
The initiative aims to raise awareness of safe mobility among road figures. It is alarming that, according to the Federal Statistical Office, around 20,500 children between the ages of six and 14 were injured in traffic accidents in 2022, with driving a car or bicycle being the main cause in many cases. In addition, the number of parent taxis at schools is a growing problem. Initiatives like the one in Saxony show positive approaches to promoting independent going to school.
Another important aspect of traffic education is created by the KFV's “Children in Road Traffic: Mobile with Safety” guide. This supports schools and parents in promoting children's mobility skills up to the age of 14. The aim is to train children in their risk perception and orientation at an early stage. According to the KFV, going to school should be practiced under parental supervision to ensure safe mobility.
A rethink is necessary: parents should be encouraged to walk to school with their children. More and more cities, including Cologne and Frankfurt, are already testing successful models such as school streets in order to reduce traffic in front of schools and thus increase the safety of our children. It remains to be hoped that these developments will have a positive impact on road safety and that the number of accidents will continue to fall.