by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Over 2,500 children have written letters to the Prime Minister, to ask the Government to make it easier for them to walk and cycle to school safely. As part of an initiative from sustainable transport charity Sustrans, the children - aged between seven and 11- put forward their ideas which included increasing the number of cycle paths, creating better crossings and implementing car free zones around schools.
According to a recent national survey, 50 per cent of children in the UK want to cycle to school, yet only two per cent do; a third of children are now driven to school, many for journeys of less than one mile.
Paul Osborne, Sustrans Director of School Travel, comments, “There are many factors that are currently limiting children from cycling to school. Limitations from schools - much like the Schonrock children are experiencing in London - are quite common, as are stories of parents restricting their children due to safety fears.”
Television psychologist, Emma Kenny, believes that these fears are unfounded and that children should be encouraged to be independent. She says, “Allowing children independence, like cycling to school, will increase their resilience. Increased resilience results in children being happier, more active and alert.”
The letters were received as a result of a competition that Sustrans conducted as part of its work with schools. Children were asked to write a letter to the new Prime Minister on ways that the government could improve their journey to school. The winning entry was written by Joshua Newby, aged 11 from Nottinghamshire.
Sustrans has contacted the government and is currently waiting for an opportunity for the children to go along and present the letters and their ideas.
Paul adds, “Sustrans’ experience of doubling cycling in the schools that we work with shows that it is possible to encourage children to become more active, confident and independent. We should listen to what children and their parents say but we must address their principal concern about road safety; by reducing traffic speeds; teaching every child road safety in school; and improving driving behavior near children.”
Emma continues, ”When your children go to school, you need to think of them as an individual person and not an extension of yourself – listen to them and see exactly how they want to travel to school and try to support that.”
If the government is really serious as to green and eco and all that and about sustainability then cycling must be made safer and not just for kids.
In many places you see adults also cycle – though it is illegal for both children and adults – on the sidewalk simply because cycling on the roads is too dangerous and we, in the UK at least, lack proper cycle paths.
When one goes to Europe, whether the Netherlands or Germany, there are bicycle paths all over the place and they do not, generally, are but a few yards, and they also or, mostly, separated from the main road and traffic by physical barriers.
In Britain, even if bicycle routes exists, this is not the case and more often than not cycle lanes are used by cars to park on, meaning that cyclists must make dangerous moves into the road with heavy traffic about.
Unless we change things, and the easiest and cheapest way is to do away with the rules of “no cycling on the sidewalk”, people will stay in their cars and those of us that do cycle some of them will have to continue to break the law.
© 2010
