AS FAMILIES prepare to return to school next week health advocates are urging people to leave their cars and walk to school.
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Yet that might not be so easy, with many parents saying the car is unavoidable as a new LiveLighter survey reveals two in three children are driven to schools most days.
Kangaroo Flat parent Liz Tatt’s two daughters were beginning grade three and prep next week.
While she would like her children to walk to school it was a suburb away from their home.
“I guess it’s a rural school so a lot of parents drop children off on their way to work,” Mrs Tatt said.
“There are some children living in the local area within reasonable walking distance but I would say there would be more being dropped off than those walking.”
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Despite the challenges, Mrs Tatt would like to devise a solution that allowed her children to walk to school.
“We have grandparents who live out (in Lockwood). I think once the children get a bit older and a bit more independent we might be able to do a drop off at the grandparents’ place and then they could walk to school,” she said.
That would be a move welcomed by health advocates, with Ms McAleese saying it was the kind of thinking that instilled healthy attitudes.
“If driving is unavoidable, even parking 10 or 15 minutes away and walking the rest of the way together is a good compromise,” she said.
Still, Mrs Tatt said plans to walk partway to school would not come to fruition for a while.
“It’s a very, very busy road in the mornings so its a hard one, as a parent, to put that responsibility on your children and say ‘yep, you’ll be safe’,” Mrs Tatt said.
More than half of parents surveyed believed it was important for children to be able to walk to school without adult supervision but fewer than one third believed it was safe for them to do so.
One in four cited the lack of a safe route or personal safety as a reason their children did not walk or ride to school.
Ms McAleese said all school-age kids needed one hour of moderate to vigorous physical exercise every day.
Adults should clock up between two-and-a-half and five hours of moderate intensity exercise every week.
“That’s why we would like to see more safe, physical activity-friendly communities which enable and encourage the use of active transport such as walking and cycling,” Ms McAleese said.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
