Pupils take a close look at cycle paths

In order to improve the cycle paths in Waldeck-Frankenberg - especially those used as routes to school - and make them even safer, the district is also relying on feedback from schoolchildren. Children and young people from the Frankenberg Edertal School and the Louis-Peter School as well as the Alte Landesschule in Korbach are already taking part in the project.

Within the framework of project days, they check the cycle routes and routes to school around their schools together with a project office working for the district and examine them for danger or weak points. The information is incorporated into the Hesse-wide pupil cycle route planner - a network of routes that pupils can use to find the most direct and safest route to their school by bike.

"We are also counting on the motivation and cooperation of the children and young people here, as they are to be integrated into the process as the main participants," says District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst. "Difficult road traffic situations are to be uncovered together with the pupils in order to work out joint solutions for a safe way to school," says First District Commissioner Karl-Friedrich Frese. Both emphasise that the project days are also about imparting knowledge about what makes a safe bicycle and how to move safely in road traffic.

Already in the spring of this year, the stakeholders of the district and the Integrated Traffic and Mobility Management Frankfurt met to discuss a safe network of school cycle routes in the district. The development of this network is one of the services offered by the Centre for School Mobility Management. The goal is to have a comprehensive network for Hesse.

The planning office for Waldeck-Frankenberg will develop a network of suggestions based on a tour and the information provided by the pupils, the school administrators and the cities and municipalities. After the summer holidays, this will be presented in four advisory board meetings and put up for discussion. This step serves the purpose of quality assurance. The pupil cycle route planner is expected to be activated at the beginning of 2023. Further information is also available here.

Background: School Mobility Management
The State of Hesse has set up the "Specialist Centre for School Mobility Management" at ivm as part of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nahmobilität Hessen (AGNH). It offers modules for consultation, qualification and implementation in the field of school mobility management. The ivm has the task of developing measures for integrated transport and mobility management in the Frankfurt RhineMain region. Together with its shareholders - the cities and districts of the Frankfurt RhineMain region, the federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate and the Rhine-Main Transport Association - it implements these measures. All offers of the centre of expertise can be found at www.besserzurschule.de.