Walking, riding a bicycle and scooting to school offers many benefits, both for children’s physical and mental well-being, as well as for the environment and the community more broadly. Aside from the fact that most kids want to walk, ride or scoot to school if they can, the top six reasons should be: 1. Active travel improves physical health Active travel (walking, riding and scooting) is an excellent form of exercise that can help children and young adults improve cardiovascular fitness and reduce the risk of obesity. Numerous studies have shown the positive impact of physical activity on children's health. It is also great for the parents and carers who accompany children to get some extra exercise into their day. Encouraging students to walk and cycle to school establishes healthy habits and a love of riding and walking early in life, which they are likely to carry into adulthood. This can lead to a lifetime of physical activity and better overall health outcomes. Australian kids are hugely car dependent with only 14% of kids making their way to school independently. This has enormous costs to physical and psychological health. Australian teens rank 140 out of 146 of the least physically active nations around the world (The Lancet), with 25% of Australian kids obese, and 67% of Australian adults overweight or obese (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). The combined impact of physical activity, overweight and obesity ranks equally with tobacco control as the leading factors in disease prevention in Australia. 2. Active travel improves mental health and academic performance Regular physical activity, such as walking, riding and scooting, has been linked to improved mood, reduced stress, and better mental health and overall sense of well-being in children and young adults. Research shows that physical activity, including walking and cycling to school, enhances cognitive function, improves behaviour in class and academic performance. Walking and cycling to school helps children arrive more alert and ready to learn. A survey of Australian parents by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne found that most parents identified benefits of children travelling independently to school with 84% identifying that it helps build independence and problem solving skills These same benefits apply to the parents and carers making the trips with their students and/or freed up to travel to work by active travel or public transport rather than continuing on in the car after drop off. 3. Active travel improves traffic safety by reducing congestionTraffic congestion and problems parking around schools are a nightmare for all members of the school community including neighbours. Fewer cars around schools reduce the risk of accidents during drop-off and pick-up times, making the area around the school safer for everyone. When children walk or cycle to school, there are fewer cars on the road during peak traffic times. This reduces the overall volume of traffic on our streets and means less congestion for everyone. Fewer cars around schools also reduces the risk of crashes during drop-off and pick-up times, making the area around the school safer for everyone especially children. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 14, contributing to 13% of deaths in this age group. When more children walk or cycle to school, there are fewer parents driving around schools trying to find parking spots, leading to less delay for people who need to drive . Encouraging children to cycle to school normalises getting around without a car. This cultural shift can have a long-term impact on reducing traffic congestion as people become more accustomed to walking, cycling and using public transport to get around. 4. Active travel can reduce your cost of living Active travel is a low cost way to get around. Families can save money by reducing the number of vehicles they need to own, fuel used, tolls, parking fees, and vehicle maintenance. The average household spends $25,000 a year on transport, mostly on vehicle insurance, registration , petrol, financing and so on. A bicycle costs fraction of that. Find out more about how to ride down the cost of living on the Bicycle NSW website. 5. Active travel promotes kids’ independence and interaction with their local community Walking, riding and scooting to school and other activities can strengthen the sense of community by encouraging children and families to interact with neighbours and local businesses on their way to school. Where traffic and crossings are safe, walking and cycling to school without an adult fosters a sense of independence and responsibility in children and is closely linked to a higher sense of well-being. Walking and cycling in groups or with friends can enhance children’s social skills and build friendships. In early years when parents and carers accompany children or arrange walking and cycling buses, active travel supports new adult friendships and invaluable networks of support to help with looking after children. Driving children to school takes time and can have an impact on parents and carers productivity. If traffic and crossings are safe for children to walk or cycle to school without an adult then the time otherwise spent picking up and dropping off can be used to do other things. 6. Active travel has enormous environmental benefits According to the Department of Climate Change, over 10% of Australia's total emissions are from motor vehicles. Around the world, traffic emissions have been causally linked with childhood asthma and respiratory infections, reduced lung capacity, systemic inflammation, impaired cognitive development and behavioural problems. For unborn children, traffic pollution is associated with stillbirth, low birth weight, premature birth and organ damage, as well as impaired respiratory and immune development, and adverse impacts on neurodevelopment including a reduced IQ. The Melbourne Climate Futures Centre found that in Australia, traffic pollution likely causes 11,105 premature deaths in adults and 66,000 childhood asthma cases each year. Cycling reduces the number of cars on the road, leading to lower carbon emissions and improved air quality particularly around schools. This benefits both children and the community at large by reducing exposure to air pollution. Easy things you can do to get your family riding, walking or scooting to school: 1
6. Get your family insured with a Bicycle NSW Membership so that you can ride with peace of mind knowing that you are covered by comprehensive insurance, as well as gain access to lots of other member only benefits.
7. Contact your local council to see if they have an active travel plan or offer any support to get residents riding, walking or scooting.
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By the time both of my children were at school I found myself wishing that our bike ride to and from school could be a little bit nicer. For context, it’s already nice-ish. Our school, Coburg North Primary School, has separated pedestrian and cycling paths that run right to the main entrance. It’s just that as usual, space is quite contested around school pick up and drop off times, and there is a lot of motor vehicle traffic. We also have to cross a very busy arterial road to get there. The inspiration to do something about it comes from my family’s lived experience of using active transport every day to school. Putting aside the daily constraints of the weather, it feels like our ambition to make active transport the first choice in our family is working well. But it isn’t exactly easy all the time. The chance came to do something about it when our council, Merri-bek (Victoria), started to directly engage with schools in a Ride and Stride program. As a volunteer on the school council, my first step was to work with the school in applying for this program. In our application we talked about how many children already ride to school, and we felt that this was only the beginning. The Ride and Stride program brought a range of new initiatives to our school. It enhanced our existing engagement in ride to school day, and also helped the council collect data on how many families used active transport to get to school, and how often. A centrepiece of the program was trialling “Open Streets”, where for a period of time before and after school the street is opened to humans by closing it to through motor vehicle traffic. As I’m sure many readers will appreciate, schools are busy places. We are fortunate in that our school supports these programs, but it is quite clear that they need to be community run to succeed here. Teachers have to teach. So the trick was to find a way to make this run with volunteers, so that we could deliver better active transport to the children, without putting any more burden on the school. The Open Streets trial events were carried off with great success, but quite a lot of work from the school, the council, and support from Bicycle Network. The trials revealed three things: that open streets can be carried out; that they have a huge impact on the amount of active transport used to get to school, and that an overwhelming majority in the community supported the idea. A successful trial needs to lead to something else, and in this case, it was establishing a fully fledged program. More than the trial, the program has to rely on volunteers. So in the background, I took on the role of lead volunteer in the program, which meant undertaking traffic management training, so that I could implement a traffic management plan. A traffic management plan is the sort of thing you see when roadworks are undertaken, we put signs out to advise of road closures in a safe way. These plans are drawn up by professionals. Another role of mine as lead volunteer was to build a team of willing adult volunteers who would help on the day. While I have to be present, as the person implementing the traffic management plan, each time we open the street, we also rely on other volunteers. We’ve got one person at each end of the street and another person roving the area. We provide advice on how to detour motor vehicles around the space, and we also help residents gain access to their homes if they need to, during the event. There’s even a building site in our area, and I often help the builders get their materials on site. An Open Streets event is a happy event. By opening a stretch of side street, only 100m long, we create an entirely different look and feel. The space becomes human centred. We close the road to motor vehicles from 8:15 to 9am. During this time, it’s wonderful to see how the space fills with families, and the children have lots more space to play, walk, ride and scoot – both to school and around the street once they arrive. The street becomes a social space, before the school bell rings. Lots of people hang around, the children play and chat to each other, and frankly the parents do the same. It changes the dynamic of the school drop off. In the afternoons from 3:15pm to 4:15 we do it again. When school ends at 3:30 pm, it fills up with people who sometimes hang around for a short time, and sometimes as long as they can! The afternoons have more of a relaxed feel, perhaps because of being on a Friday. Being a volunteer on the school council was no doubt a part of getting this initiative started. It also has to be said that the leadership from Merri-bek has been superb. Naturally, our school principal and leadership team have been instrumental as well. They understand the educational benefits of children using active transport to get to school, so the whole program is in their interest. So far this year, we’ve been running open streets on the first Friday of every month. We launched with a celebratory feel, and now have ingrained them as kind of normal. Every event isn’t a party, it just feels like a little slice of somewhere else, happening here in suburban Melbourne. In the beginning, I fielded plenty of questions from locals, but these have become much easier to answer as the evidence - that is, happy children playing - becomes visible. If you’ve ever had curiosity about what can be done at your school to improve active transport, then my suggestions are straightforward. First of all, contribute to your school council by volunteering. Secondly, make the time to explain the educational benefits of active transport to the school. Thirdly, engage with your local government on active transport. This last step for me was easy, but even if it’s difficult, I think it is always worth trying. For more info about the program and to read the reports visit: https://zerocarbonmerri-bek.org.au/travel-smart/ride-and-stride/ Robbie NapperRobbie Napper is a parent of two primary school aged children and lives with his family in Coburg, a Northern suburb of Melbourne. When not volunteering, Robbie is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University and sustainable transport expert. He is Deputy Director of Monash's Mobility Design Lab, member of the Australasian College of Road Safety, and holds a PhD in Industrial Design specialising in mobility. He is co-author of the book: Urban Mobility Design. |
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