Green Transport Week 2011 | Walking to school

Walk to School day first took place as part of Green Transport Week and later became a wider campaign to encourage parents, pupils and teachers to think about their journey to and from school, and the many benefits of making it on foot.

Over half of children don’t walk to school regularly, and more and more pupils are being driven to school in a car. This trend is contributing to reduced physical activity and increased childhood obesity, urban congestion and air pollution.

Organising an event to encourage pupils your own children’s school to walk in one day is easier than it sounds.

There is an excellent guide to running such as event on the Walk to school website

Why is it important that kids walk to school?

Less than one in two primary school children now walk to school.

In the three years to 1991 the proportion of children aged under 10 walking to school in Britain was 62 per cent, but this has now dropped to 48 per cent according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

By contrast, the proportion of children travelling to school by car has increased from 27 to 43 per cent.

The move from walking to travelling by car is only partly explained by the fact that the average length of a trip to school has increased for primary school children from 1.3 miles in 1995–97 to 1.6 miles in 2008.

The fact that many children are now driven to school may go some way to explaining the improvements in British road casualty figures. Road deaths on British roads have fallen below 3,000 for the first time since records began in 1926.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “There may be fewer casualties, but if people switch from walking to cars, high levels of traffic makes streets feel dangerous and puts more people off cycling and walking.”

“The increasing number of vehicles on British roads and its effect on the travel habits of children continues a vicious cycle – the more traffic there is, the more likely children are to be ferried to school by car.”