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From the Desk of Bill Cirone...
March 3, 2000
Fewer Children Than Ever Biking to School
The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition raises some very interesting and important issues regarding the decline in numbers of children walking or biking to school.
Just a few short generations ago, in the 1950s and 60s, half of all children bicycled or walked to school. Today, only one in ten do so, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
And this decrease is evident throughout the country, including the heartland of America. In fact, according to an article published by the New York Times, even among school-age children who live within two miles of the school they attend, only 2.5 percent ride bicycles to get there. These figures have implications for health, fitness, and safety.
According to the coalition material, there are five major reasons for the decline:
1. A lack of safe facilities for children to walk and bike safely is the number one reason cited. While road improvements, such as widened and double turn lanes are made for ease of automobile access, pedestrian and bicycle safety takes a back seat.
2. Excessive media hype about dangers of child abductions, gun violence, drugs and other real, but overblown concerns add to a sense of danger and worry for parents. Government statistics show that in fact automobiles are by far a bigger threat to children than all these other potential threats combined.
3. Fuel costs are still not high enough to make adults hesitate to drive.
4. With both parents working, for longer hours, many try to compensate through the perceived gift of driving children around.
5. Many of these changes have happened gradually and there has been no alarm raised about them.
Unfortunately, these changes have resulted in increased rates of obesity among young people, a deteriorating quality of life for children who lose the independence and mobility that comes from walking and bicycling independently, and a deteriorating quality of life for neighborhoods in terms of increased traffic.
As was the case with recycling and smoking, it will take shifts of awareness and attitude to change the current situation. As Robert Bernstein, president of the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, stated, "When we design a land use and transportation system that allows children to walk and bike to school and recreation safely, we have gone most of the way to guaranteeing access and mobility for everyone."
© Santa Barbara County Education Office
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