Our problem is simple. Schools across the USA are suffering a shortage of kids walking or biking to school. Driving causes poor air quality and health issues. The traffic conditions around schools are both dangerous and slow. This makes walking and biking faster than driving, but more dangerous. According to the NHTSA, parents driving their kids to school compose about 25 percent of the morning traffic. Pollution Pollution is a huge issue! Kids being driven to school adds up to a lot of pollution. There is strong evidence linking air pollution produced by traffic to public health issues like asthma, certain cancers, and other chronic respiratory illnesses. For children, the risks are even greater! Studies have shown that children living within a third of a mile from a  freeway, not only were more likely to have asthma, but also had reductions in lung function, which is a risk factor for respiratory and cardiovascular disease later in life. More recently, researchers highlighted the danger that children face in school by determining that approximately one in three U.S. public schools are located in “air pollution danger zones,” within a quarter-mile of highways.
Physical Inactivity
Another critical issue is physical inactivity. In 1969, 42 out of every hundred children from 5 -18 years old walked or biked to school. In 2001 only 16 out of every 100 people from 5 -16 years old walked or bike to school. In 1969, 87 out of every 100 children who lived within a one mile radius of their school walked or biked to school, but in 2001 only 61 people out of 100 people of the same age group within a mile of their school walked or biked to school. According to the TIME/ABC News Summit on Obesity Public Health, medical professionals have begun to speculate that the current generation of children may be the first that will not live as long as their parents. In the last twenty years alone the Child Development Center reports that obesity rates have more than doubled among children. Overweight children have an increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes, low self esteem, decreased physical functioning, obesity in adulthood, and many other negative emotional and physical effects. Why Don't We Walk? One of the major reasons why parents don’t allow their kids to walk or bike is traffic safety. In the 2004 National Survey, this was one of the main reasons why people do not walk or bike to school. In 2004, 493 pedestrians and bicyclists ages 14 and under were killed and approximately 29,000 children were injured while walking or bicycling in the  A vicious cycle forms from parents not wanting their children to walk or bike to school.
Parents see cars in traffic so they think it is not safe to let their
kids walk or bike to school. They in turn add to the traffic, leading
more parents to make this decision.
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Our Problem |
