Why Promote Bicycling and Walking?
Physical Activity
Air Quality and the Environment
Safety
Traffic Congestion and Calming
Physical Activity
There are plenty of great reasons to walk and bike to school – less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air – but one of the best is that children and parents will be healthier. With obesity rates skyrocketing and only one-quarter of Americans getting the Surgeon General's recommended daily dose of exercise (just 30 minutes), it's an ideal time to encourage people to walk + bike to school for their own health and well-being.
Kids Need to Move
Walking and biking are a great way for adults and kids to be active. Lack of physical activity is a major cause of chronic illness and death for our country’s adults. Being overweight can cause health problems like diabetes during childhood and research shows that physically inactive kids are more likely to grow up to be physically inactive adults – and are therefore at high risk for obesity and related illnesses.
Obesity rates among children have more than doubled in the past twenty years, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Even worse, rates of obesity are much higher among minority children than among white youth, suggesting a grave social inequity in the availability of safe, healthy recreational opportunities.
Add walking + biking to the mix. Physical activity recommendations for children suggest that they need a variety of activities each day - some intense, some less-so, some informal, some structured.
Walking or cycling to and from school is an ideal way to get some of that activity at no extra cost to the child or family.
Walking + biking to school is a missed opportunity. Roughly 10% of children nationwide walk to school regularly, and only 2% regularly bike to school. Even among those kids living within a mile of their school, only 25% are regular walkers.
Parents who walk or bike to school with their kids get to be sociable. Nearly nine out ten parents who walk their children to school see it as an ideal way to meet new people, according to a survey in the UK. Many said that the school entrance was a better place to meet new people than pubs, clubs, evening classes or the supermarket.
More on physical activity:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe the importance of physical activity
How much activity?
Are there special recommendations for young people?
How much activity should kids get? Elementary school-aged children should accumulate at least 30 to 60 minutes of age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate physical activity from a variety of activities on all, or most, days of the week.
How active do adults need to be to gain some benefits?
What about adults? To promote their general health, adults are encouraged to meet or exceed recommendations of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity "most" days of the week.
What you can do…
Promote bicycling and walking to school through Walk to School events and Safe Routes to School programs which enable children to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines.
State-based Physical Activity Program Directory
Partner with others that care about kids' health. Find people in your state that are encouraging physical activity and fighting obesity among children.
CDC kids' sites
Give kids access to physical activity information that's actually relevant and presented for them. Go to the CDC's sites:
http://www.verbnow.com
http://www.bam.gov
Health Resources and Information Links
For a comprehensive listing of links and organizations related to physical activity, nutrition, and health, go to the CDC's resource list.
Air Quality and the Environment
Walking or biking to school protects the environment and your health. When children decide to lace-up their sneakers to walk, or strap on their bike helmets to pedal to school instead of riding in a car, they reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted by automobiles.
These air pollutants can be especially harmful to children. Children have respiratory systems that are not fully developed, they spend more time at higher activity levels, which can cause them to breath more deeply and take in more air pollution. They are also more likely to have asthma or other acute respiratory problems that can be aggravated by air pollution than other age groups. By walking or riding a bike to school, children lower the amount of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which helps reduce toxic air pollutants.
Vehicles emit a variety of air pollutants. For example, ground level ozone is created by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compound gases in the presence of heat and sunlight. Visit www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/ozone/what.html or www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/regusmog/infozone.html to find more about ozone and www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/nox/hlth.html to learn about nitrogen oxides.
Particulate matter are particles of dust, soot, smoke, dirt, and liquid droplets that are also released into the air by cars, trucks and other vehicles. Go to www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/pm/index.html to learn more about particulate matter.
Hazardous or toxic air pollutants like the ones mentioned above are known or suspected to cause serious health effects such as cancer, birth defects, or respiratory, neurological, immune, or reproductive effects. To find out more, visit www.epa.gov/air/toxicair/newtoxics.html.
Ozone can cause these health effects:
irritated lung airways
shortness of breath
chest pain
wheezing and coughing
reduced lung function
asthma attacks
damaged lung tissue
chronic respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis
Particulate matter can cause these health effects:
persistent coughs and phlegm
respiratory and cardiovascular problems
chronic bronchitis
decreased lung function
premature death
Carbon monoxide can cause these health effects:
reduces cardiovascular and central nervous system functions
cardiovascular health effects: chest pain,
central nervous system health effects: vision problems, reduced ability to work or learn, reduced manual dexterity, and difficulty performing complex tasks. At high levels, can cause death.
To learn more about carbon monoxide check out www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/cleanair.html
Toxic air pollutants can cause these health effects:
damaged immune system
reproductive problems (reduced fertility)
respiratory problems
developmental disorders
nervous system disorders
cancer
A few considerations for walkers and bicyclists
Consult the Air Quality Index (AQI)
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages everyone to drive less and to walk, bike, or ride public transportation on bad air quality days. However, those who suffer from respiratory illness like asthma should not walk or ride on these days. When walking or riding on these days, play it safe. If possible, walk or ride in the coolest parts of the day. Consult the air quality index to find out how clean or polluted the air is on a particular day. See www.epa.gov/airnow/ for real-time animated maps and forecasts of the air quality in your area. Parents should check the AQI forecast each day to help protect children from poor air quality.
Pick the route with least traffic
Children may be exposed higher levels of air toxins near roadways with heavy traffic. If possible, try to find routes with less traffic volume, or walk or ride when traffic volumes are lower.
Safety
The promotion of bicycling and walking to school provides an opportunity to address safety. Every year, about 25,000 child pedestrians are injured by motor vehicles. Reducing the risk of injury includes teaching children pedestrian and bicycle skills. It also means reminding drivers to watch for others using the road. Hazardous conditions along routes to school need to be identified and fixed.
Some of the best ways to increase the safety of a child's walk or bike to school are to:
- provide safe, well-maintained walkways separate from vehicles;
- teach children to cross streets at marked crossings, and provide ample, well-designed, accessible, and when necessary monitored crosswalks;
- slow traffic in neighborhoods and near schools;
- organize Walking + Biking School Buses - adult-led groups walking and biking safe routes to school - in your neighborhood;
- teach bicycle and pedestrian safety at home and in school classrooms
Traffic Congestion and Calming
Did you know that up to 25% of traffic congestion is caused by parents driving their kids to school? Did you know that the primary cause of accidental death among youth is bicycle and pedestrian collisions with an auto?
Our Safe Routes to School program contains engineering and enforcement components that can alleviate the conditions that cause these problems. Through improved street design, such as crosswalk improvements, installation of sidewalks, speed bumps, roundabouts, curb extensions and other engineering techniques, pedestrian and bicyclist safety can be markedly improved, reducing accidents, and calming streets.
School drop-off and pick-up zones can be moved or altered to reduce the impact to traffic flow-through, and improve safety. For instance, the zone can be moved a block away to a less busy street, so that the front of the school is not congested, and kids can then walk the block to school, getting some physical activity while they travel. School guards are posted at intersections along the way, and parents are encouraged to drive away on an alternate route to avoid the 'walk to school' route.
