Austrias national regulation for school streets

By project STEP UP

Published on 08 January 2025

Austria

About this good practice

Since October 2022, school streets are part of the Austrian Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) with uniform rules and their own traffic sign. Until then, school streets were prescribed by temporary driving bans, which had to be developed individually for each school by the responsible authority. The legal implementation on the federal level offers standardized procedures and regulations for all over Austria. Therefore the introduction of school streets became much easier and more frequent.

A school street helps to reduce the volume of car traffic in front of schools including the number of parent cabs. This increases road safety, improves air quality and supports the health of children as they use more active ways of mobility like walking.

According to the StVO, the following regulations apply in a school street during the prescribed times:

• Motor vehicles are prohibited from driving on the road or a section of road in the vicinity of educational facilities. Residents may drive with a car to or from a destination within the schoolstreet at walking speed.
• Walking is also permitted on the roadway.
• Cycling is permitted at walking speed.
• The road section can be closed off mechanically, for example with bollards or scissor barriers.

Outside the prescribed times, the general provisions of the road traffic regulations apply.

The main beneficiaries are pupils as road safety is increased and active ways of mobility are encouraged.

Resources needed

Apart from the political commitment, no resources are needed for implementing this regulation.
For implementing a school street itself, also very little resources are needed. It’s helpful to have some staff resources to accompany the implementation process.

Evidence of success

At the moment there are 32 examples of executed school streets which have been recognised. It can be assumed that there are a lot more, which haven’t been detected yet.
In Vienna the implementation of a school street was evaluated. The results clearly show that car traffic was reduced and road safety for children could be increased. (https://www.wienzufuss.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/12/Endbericht…)

Potential for learning or transfer

A legal implementation on the national level supports municipalities to implement school streets as it simplifies the processes a lot. For a broad acceptance, the national regulation gives a lot of room for exceptions on who is allowed to enter a school street per car. This allows for a custom solution depending on the local context.