(From Healthy Families:)

“Two miles to school, through the snow, uphill —  both ways!”
We all know the jokes about the incredible distances and difficulties our parents and grandparents faced in order to get to school.  Turns out that those dangers were minor compared to the ones that today’s kids face: obesity and
inactivity.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Universite de Montreal and published this week in the journal Pediatrics, just under 35% of Canadian kids are using “active transportation” (a bike, a scooter, their own feet) to get to school.  Children from urban areas, and in lower income neighbourhoods are more likely to walk than those in rural areas where distances are greater, or children from higher income families.

Study author Roman Pabayo says that the results have implications for urban planning. “We have to look at how we zone and how we plan where we put schools, so it’s … safer and also more feasible for children and teenagers to walk to school.”  

The study’s findings revealed, unsurprisingly, that community matters: when families feel the route to school is safe, children are more likely to walk to school. Parents who reported that their child had many friends in their area were more than likely to have children who walked to school. Teens were less likely to walk or bike if there weren’t traffic lights or pedestrian crossings on their route to school. And whether children had someone to commute with (a friend, parent or  sibling) was particularly significant in determining how they got to school.

How do your children get to school?  And what would need to change in your community to increase the numbers of children who are able to get to school under their own steam?  Tell us your thoughts on our blog