Safety concerns stop kids travelling to school alone: report

Ever suspect that parents don’t let kids make their own way to and from school much any more?

New research confirms it, showing only one-third (35 per cent) of Queensland parents allow their children to make the school trip alone, or with other kids.

School zones require motorists to slow down.Credit: SMH

The research, conducted by insurer AAMI, found more than half (56 per cent) of primary school children nationally were driven or accompanied to and from school by another adult.

This was in contrast to the previous generation, when almost seven in 10 Australians (69 per cent) used to walk, bike or scoot to and from primary school by themselves.

More than three quarters (78 per cent) of those polled cited safety concerns, with 61 per cent worried about drivers not paying attention.

The survey also found 25 per cent of drivers admitted to speeding through school zones, and 12 per cent did not always follow school “Drop and Go” zone rules.

What’s the reason why you would not allow your child to walk/ride to and from primary school on their own or with other kids?

Because it’s not safe – I’m worried/concerned about their safety i.e. crossing major roads, other drivers not paying attention 61%

Distance – school is too far away from our home 41%

My children don’t have the awareness and road safety sense 17%

My kids don’t own or aren’t confident on a bike/scooter 7%

Pure Profile/AAMI survey, November 2024

Russell White, chair and founder of the Australian Road Safety Foundation, said road deaths among children up to seven years old had increased by 54 per cent in 2024 compared with 2023.

“Australians are driving recklessly in and around school zones and need to pay attention to speed limits and rules that have been put in place to keep children safe,” he said.

The generational shift in commuting habits highlights a catch-22 common to what is sometimes criticised as “helicopter parenting”. If kids are constantly chaperoned they don’t get the opportunity to practise safe behaviours independently.

“We need to be aware children may not have road-safety skills and awareness, increasing the risk of an accident occurring in a school zone,” AAMI motor claims executive manager Luisa Rose said.

Ashgrove mum Clarissa Ellemor has two kids enrolled at Oakleigh State School and allows them to walk to school independently as they live very close by. A poll has found only 35 per cent of Queensland parents do this.Credit: Nick Dent

“When our kids are ready and we hold them back, we hold them back from building their own sense of bravery,” parenting expert Maggie Dent said on this topic on her Instagram feed.

Dent suggested parents walk the safest path to school with their child to get them familiar with it, and ease into parent-free travel by allowing it one afternoon a week.

Ashgrove mum Clarissa Ellemor is one of the trusting 35 per cent, allowing her kids Florence, 11, and August, 8, to walk to and from school independently.

Ellemor said it might be a different case if they did not live so close to their school, Oakleigh State School.

“If they had to cross the main road I would be a bit nervous,” Ellemor said.

“Wardell Street has massive trucks and the truck is supposed to stop at the lights, but that doesn’t mean they’re always going to stop.”

Ellemor said she previously had volunteered with the school’s Active School Travel program, provided by Brisbane City Council with the aim of increasing road safety awareness and reducing school traffic congestion.

“We’d have ‘walking buses’, where we as adults would meet a group of kids in a certain location and walk them to school,” she said.

“I think back to when I was going to school, it was more free-range. People were [travelling] to school totally independent of their parents.

“But it’s within reason, there’s more cars on the road [now], it’s busier.”

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