Posted on 03/28/2008 3:24:06 PM PDT by blam
Why Don't Kids Walk To School Anymore?
No sidewalk and no green buffer makes walking feel unsafe. A wide treed buffer between a sidewalk and the street encourages walking. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — Maybe when we were their age, we walked five miles to school, rain or shine. So why don't most children today walk or bike to school?
It's not necessarily because they're spoiled, lazy or over scheduled. According to a University of Michigan researcher, concerns about safety are the main reason that less than 13 percent of U.S. children walked or biked to school in 2004, compared to more than 50 percent who did so in 1969.
"These concerns are strongly linked to the kind of physical environment children navigate between home and school," said Byoung-Suk Kweon, an environmental and landscape architecture researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).
"The greener the route, the more likely it is that children will walk and bike."
Using Geographic Information System (GIS) data combined with a survey of 186 parents of 5th through 8th grade students, Kweon found that parents were most concerned about the speed and volume of traffic students would encounter en route to school; the possibility of crime; and the weather.
"In Texas, where we lived when I conducted this study, our sons did not walk to school because we lived too far away," said Kweon, who is also affiliated with the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. In general, she found, children who walk to school usually live less than three-quarters of a mile away.
"In Ann Arbor, they do walk to school. We have a 27 degree rule. If it's colder than that, we drive them; if it's warmer than that, they walk."
In her study, Kweon found that children use sidewalks, not bike lanes, when they ride to school. "Parents may be concerned about the safety of bike lanes, and they may be telling their children to ride on the sidewalk because it's safer," she said. "We may need to re-think how to place bike lanes in school walk zones."
To learn more about how the physical environment influences parents' perceptions of safety and their willingness to allow their children walk or bike to school, Kweon and colleagues conducted a series of laboratory-based simulation studies, testing six different pedestrian environments.
"It's very important for parents that there be a separation or buffer between traffic and the sidewalk," she said. "They are much more willing to let their children walk when this buffer is at least eight feet wide, and when there are also trees in this area." Trees not only provide shade, but also serve as a sort of vertical barrier between sidewalk and street.
Although improving the physical environment reduces parents' concerns for their children's safety, Kweon found that the social environment—especially the likelihood of crime—strongly affects parental perceptions of safety as well. Kweon hopes to conduct a related study in Detroit to examine how the intersection of social and physical factors influences the likelihood that children will walk to school.
By identifying environmental elements conducive to walking and biking to school, Kweon hopes her research may help improve children's physical health and reduce the incidence of childhood obesity, especially prevalent among minority children.
"Walking or biking to school helps children develop an early habit of engaging in physical activity, and that can lead to a healthier and more active and healthier population," she said.
Kweon's study was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and from the Southwest Region University Transportation Center in College Station, Texas.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Michigan.
You forgot to add the “Walk Zone with Child Molester” graphic. Check your local Megan’s Law database and see how many sex offender live on your kid’s walk to school and there will be a good reason to drive your kid to school every day.
I’m glad I grew up in a small town where we walked to school, sidewalk or not.
Where’s the “Sidewalk Going Uphill In Both Directions?”
Most of the schools in my town are adjacent to residential streets and major arterials that don't even have continuous sidewalks.
I drive my kids across town to a Christian school with decent test scores. If my local gov’t school was any good, and if I liked gov’t schools, they would go there (just down the street), and they would ride their bikes.
Lots of over-cautious parents these days=lots of driving kids to school.
If I still had children at home, I would walk or drive them to school everyday, and the school is just down the street. I don’t trust the neighborhood, or the goons who like little kids.
1) Yep, 20 miles one way.
2) Buses pick up kids who live a mile from school.
3) The study didn't include the fact that sickos live on the walk to school.
Don’t forget the housewife running late driving a big SUV speeding through the school zone doing 55 in a 35.
and the burning hot snow..?
Ya! I know. I'll never understand till I have kids of my own. Well I do remember growing up. We walked to school, we played unsupervised, we played contact sports during recess. Kids today are wrapped in bubble wrap, We are raising a generation of wimps and parents are to blame.
Smart momma!
That is no longer constitutional. US Supreme Court ruled so in the Seattle School district case last year.
My two youngest are walkers (as were the two teens when they attended the same school).
They all walked when the two oldest were there or the other kids who were older were there.
Now it’s just my two little ones and another little girl. They walk home only when they have to but that’s because they’re clueless, unlike their older sibs who had a brain and awareness of their surroundings.Next year, they’ll have to walk home more often and cell phones are a great way to keep in touch.
It’s not good to keep kids in a bubble, imo.
Not to mention the illegals that slipped into your neighbor hood last night.
Memphis.
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