Parents taxi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The word parent taxi is a term that emerged from the field of traffic education, is now also widely used in everyday language and is often used in the media. It illustrates the phenomenon that children and young people are driven in the form of a convenient transport service from their parents in their vehicles to their destinations such as school or club.

Literal sense

The compound expresses that parents and adolescents use the family's vehicle like a quickly available taxi as a means of transport, with the parents taking on the role of taxi drivers, the offspring that of taxi guests. On the one hand, the meaning of the word includes the fact of this type of transport, for example in contrast to the use of public transport such as bus or train. On the other hand, it also describes the convenience of this mobility , for example in contrast to your own movement. The now very popular, pictorial term has found great acceptance and dissemination as a technical term in the media and in daily use, especially in the areas of school route design and school route safety.

Motivations

The most frequent motivation for parents to use the parents' taxi is the fear of endangering the child in public transport, as a result of which there has been a tendency to overprotect the offspring, which is also expressed in other popular terms such as " helicopter parents " or "Generation of rear seats" is expressed.

The fear of a hazard primarily concerns vehicle traffic. It is also triggered by reports of criminal assaults by adults or bullying attacks by classmates on the way to school. It also results from the much-described emotional state of not letting go of one's own children and being able to find themselves, which leads to the fact that first graders are sometimes even accompanied and said goodbye to the classroom and the start of lessons after they have been transported by car.

The main cause of the fearful over-cautious parenting behavior with regard to the design of the way to school is primarily the lack of confidence of the parents in their child's ability to drive and their own safety and the substitute for an intensive own traffic education. With the offspring, the convenience of parent transport plays an essential role, as is the ability to be driven quickly and effortlessly to the desired destination. For both sides, however, secondary motives and events also come into play, such as the inadequate time management before school starts and the resulting hectic morning rush at home, which is then offset by the faster vehicle transport. The caring argument of letting the children sleep longer, although you could send them to bed earlier, is also used.

Appearance and problem situation

The widespread problem of parent taxis is unanimously criticized and combated by scientists , teachers , security experts, transport associations and the police . The characteristic manifestation, visible to everyone, is the so-called school rush hour with its chaotic conditions during the bring and retrieve times at the beginning and end of lessons. It is characterized by a high density of vehicle traffic in the vicinity of the schools, by numerous cars approaching in a hurry between people going to school, by blocking the bus lane, by children getting out the wrong way in a hectic rush, by dangerous turning maneuvers and even maneuvering on sidewalks and cycle paths, by disregarding traffic rules and warning signs.

Many children are no longer allowed by their parents to move on foot or even alone through traffic. Colloquially, the designation "Backseat generation" has also been coined for this. School principals complain that parents also relieve their offspring of even the shortest distances by transporting them in vehicles. The problem creators are less the children, who have a natural need for movement and personal responsibility, than unreasonable parents.

consequences

In Germany, 28,547 children under the age of 15 had road accidents in 2016, 66 of them fatally (33 as passengers in a car, the rest as pedestrians, cyclists or passengers on bicycles). Of the 28,481 injuries sustained in traffic accidents, 11,054 were in a car, 9,232 were cyclists or passengers on a bicycle, and 6,573 were pedestrians. More than half of the children who have pedestrian accidents ran into the street without paying attention to the traffic. According to a study carried out by YouGov in June 2015 , 12 percent of all parents in Germany do not let their children out of the house unsupervised; mostly out of concern about criminals or about "dangers in traffic".

Road traffic is undoubtedly a significant source of danger for everyone, but especially for children. It is all the greater when there is no or only insufficient accompanying traffic education and the less direct dealing with real traffic is practiced.

A scientific study by the Bergische Universität Wuppertal on behalf of the ADAC at around 750 primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia confirms that the practice of the parents' taxi poses a high additional risk to children. She comes to the conclusion: “Parents taxi to school is a risk”, statistically speaking “more dangerous than the children's own walk”. It puts the corresponding accident rate in Germany for 2013 alone at 10,363 cases.

Traffic pedagogy names the following factors as the decisive disadvantages and undesirable consequences of the parent taxi phenomenon:

  • Increased endangerment of own as well as foreign children in the immediate vicinity of the school
  • Refusing necessary learning processes for independent mobility
  • Restriction of the physical activity required for health in the open air
  • Withholding experiences on the way to school
  • Prevention of the development of social skills on the way to school together
  • Negative impact on the environment
  • Unfavorable starting position for the start of lessons due to stress and restricted movement

Children and adolescents who are deprived of the necessary exercise and experience in road traffic are more prone to accidents, especially since avoiding traffic contact cannot be maintained in the long term. The police statistics refer to the children who are increasingly predestined for accidents due to inexperience as so-called "accident children".

Actions

In view of the excessive phenomenon of parent taxis, schools, police, associations and communities are increasingly taking effective publicity measures to get the problem under control:

The traffic department and the road traffic department of the city of Frankfurt am Main draw attention to the unbearable problem of the parent taxi, which is unbearable for children and schools, with the campaign “School Way Safari”, alluding to the phenomenon of “helicopter parents” with a smart short film.

Frankfurt and Düsseldorf schools defend themselves against the traffic chaos in their access area, against the dangerous maneuvering of off-road vehicles on sidewalks and cycle paths, with articles in the local and national press and with warning signs such as “Caution, dear children, your parents drive here!” Parked zebra crossings, sidewalks and fire brigade entrances, against disregard of the absolute no-stopping ban and the endangerment of one's own and other children in the school area.

Numerous public order offices , such as in Osnabrück, are now creating so-called " ban miles " in the vicinity of the schools, protection zones that prohibit vehicle traffic, as reported by the star , in order to avoid the risk of the undesired delivery and collection service Getting to grips with the beginning and end of lessons at least in the immediate vicinity of the school.

In Switzerland , in view of the large number of unteachable parents, drastic penalties have been adopted: In the canton of Thurgau, for example, a fine of one hundred francs has been due since autumn 2016 if unintentional parents disregard the official driving ban and prohibition signs in front of schools. The Rorschach Parents 'Council in the canton of St. Gallen is content with poster campaigns appealing to the parents' reason.

The Schulexpress project is a pedibus organized by schools . Collection points of the school express can also be decentralized to the school in order to distribute parent taxis to them.

Alternatives

The concerns of numerous parents who do not trust their children to walk independently to school are countered by initiatives such as the “kiss-and-go zones”, which allow children to walk the last few hundred meters from a larger car park away from school enable. Environmental associations are promoting the so-called “ tandem taxi ” as an alternative to environmentally harmful car transport , with which at least environmentally friendly transport and a minimum of personal movement are guaranteed for the child. The so-called “ Pedibus ” or “Laufbus” has also come into international fashion, a group of children who are accompanied by a responsible adult and who come together at a specific meeting point at a specific time to make their way to school together.

However, traffic experts recommend the self-designed way to school as the ideal alternative to the parents' taxi. According to the traffic didactic specialist Siegbert A. Warwitz, the independent way to school is an essential criterion for school readiness and after a competent traffic education , for example after successfully completing a learning program as a walk already for the first grader and as a bike ride after a completed cycling test for the third or fourth grader. Up-to-date traffic education relies on the child's ability to participate in traffic that is justifiable and appropriate to his / her ability profile. In doing so, she works towards the child's self-protection and tries to reduce the reliance on external protection as far as possible:

According to Warwitz, natural starting points for the willingness to forego the parents' taxi and the risk of dealing independently with traffic are the elementary needs of almost every child and young person to grow up and be independent. The transport sector accommodates them in many ways. It offers attractive "occasions to play", "spaces to discover", "places for excitement and adventure", "challenges of skill", "opportunities to prove yourself", "fields for experimentation" and "addresses for sociable action and experience" can be used for learning processes. For this purpose, small projects such as the pedestrian diploma or the school way game are implemented in the classroom. The police also organize exciting events in front of the schools for the children and with them.

In addition to the often insufficiently efficient direct parent information, today's pedagogy also tries to achieve parental insight into the renouncement of the car transport from the children:

The passed pedestrian diploma and the completed cycling test show the parents in concrete terms, also in comparison with their peers, at what age and in what form children are capable of independent traffic and should accordingly be left free. Incentives such as collecting “stars / points” together in the class framework for every walk to school motivate the children to forego the parents' taxi. As a rule, children like to go to school on foot because the way to school can be exciting and eventful. This is why the opportunity to report on your own experiences on the way to school at the beginning of the lesson also makes your own walk more attractive for the children than the parents' transport. The children also affixing signs with inscriptions such as: “Dear parents, from here we can do it alone!”, Ie the establishment of so-called “kiss-and-go zones”, has evidently proven to be a measure against very stubborn helicopter damage. Parents proven.

See also

literature

  • ADAC eV (Hrsg.): The “Elterntaxi” at elementary schools , 2nd edition 2015 / Art. No. 2830103 (Authors: Roland Winkler, Tanja Leven, Manuel Beyen, Jürgen Gerlach)
  • R. Pfeiffer: We GO to school . Vienna 2007
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act . 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, ISBN 978-3-8340-0563-2 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Children in the problem field of school rush hour , In: Case-Word-Number 86 (2007), pp. 52-60

Web links

Wiktionary: Elterntaxi  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ADAC eV (Ed.): The “Elterntaxi” at elementary schools , 2nd edition, o. O. 2015 / Art. No. 2830103 (Authors: Roland Winkler, Tanja Leven, Manuel Beyen, Jürgen Gerlach)
  2. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Children in the problem field of school rush hour , In: Ding-Wort-Zahl 86 (2007), pp. 52-60
  3. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Children in the problem field of school rush hour . In: Ding-Wort-Zahl 86 (2007), pp. 52–60
  4. Parents taxi
  5. Parents' taxi: Get off the back seat ( Memento from January 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  6. Traffic accidents. Child traffic accidents. Retrieved December 6, 2017 .
  7. Katrin Hörnlein: Where is Adventure Land? In: The time. September 3, 2015, accessed December 6, 2017 .
  8. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Traffic as a dangerous situation , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act . 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 10-20
  9. ADAC study: Parents' taxi to school is a risk
  10. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Children in the problem field of school rush hour . In: Ding-Wort-Zahl 86 (2007), pp. 52–60
  11. H. Holte, Profiles in road traffic of children and adolescents who have had an accident , reports of the Federal Highway Research Institute, Human and Safety Sub-series, Issue M 206, 2010
  12. Deutschlandfunk: Actions against the parents' taxi (accessed on January 3, 2017)
  13. ↑ Parent taxis annoy the police in the Ruhr area ( Memento from January 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on January 3, 2017)
  14. Short film "Elterntaxi" (accessed on January 2, 2017)
  15. Caution, parents taxi! (Accessed on January 2, 2017)
  16. School defends itself against parent taxis in front of the school (accessed on January 2, 2017)
  17. Frankfurt: Kampf dem Elterntaxis, accessed on January 2, 2017
  18. Osnabrück bans helicopter parents from schools Accessed on January 2, 2017
  19. ^ Thurgau: 100 francs fine for parent taxis
  20. Taxi parents cause traffic chaos
  21. Claudia Scholz: Schulexpress instead of Elterntaxi - Project in Bremen , Deutschlandfunk - Campus & Karriere from August 16, 2018 (mp3) ( Memento from August 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  22. Kristina Müller: Children should come to school independently in Ganderkesee . ( noz.de [accessed on August 19, 2018]).
  23. ^ NDR: traffic watch warns of "parents taxi" to school . ( ndr.de [accessed on August 19, 2018]).
  24. On foot to school - running school bus. Information from the Federal Environment Agency
  25. Marco Hüttenmoser: The Pedibus on the way to school - not useful and worthy of funding . In: Verkehrszeichen , Heft 4/2010, pp. 20–22
  26. ^ R. Pfeiffer: We GO to school . Vienna 2007
  27. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: How the child learns , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act . 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 50-54
  28. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: How the child learns , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act . 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 50-54
  29. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: The way to the first solo effort . In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child . 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 190–215
  30. ^ R. Pfeiffer: We GO to school . Vienna 2007