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[article] Children's reliance on cars causes concern

  • 05-10-2006 6:24am
    #1
    Navan Junction
    Closed Accounts Posts: 721 ✭✭✭


    Derek J Klobucher and Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, Irish Times, 05/10/2006

    The Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has expressed concern that fewer children are walking or cycling to school, with their greater reliance on cars causing increased traffic congestion in the capital.


    To establish the extent of the trend, the body is to conduct a large-scale survey on the mode of transport used by schoolchildren in the greater Dublin area. Some 250,000 questionnaires will be sent to parents and pupils in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and Meath in the coming weeks.

    According to the DTO, the latest research available - from the 2002 census - shows a drop of 80 per cent in children cycling to school since 1991. The number walking is down by half, while car travel is up by nearly two thirds. A 2002 survey by the DTO of the greater Dublin area shows over 30 per cent of students living less than a mile from school travelled there by car. A further quarter living less than two miles away were driven to school.

    The technical director of the DTO, Frank McCabe, said there was clear evidence that this reliance on cars to get to school was leading to increased traffic congestion. "Furthermore, whole generations of future citizens are being brought up to think the car is the only way to get around," he said. "We are conducting this schools' travel survey this year, to update the data available, and to analyse it alongside the 2006 census data, to ensure that future planning delivers the most sustainable transportation system possible."

    Fionnuala Kilfeather, chief executive of the National Parents' Council (primary), welcomed the DTO's initiative but said parents must be reassured that it is safe for their children to walk or cycle to school. With greater traffic on the roads, poor footpaths and a "lack of consistency" on cycle lanes, many parents were concerned for the safety of their children. "In that context, the number of school wardens has also been cut back," she said. "Everybody knows it would be good if more children walked to school . . . but there is very little concrete help to parents to make that a reality," she said.

    Green Party health spokesman John Gormley said the decline in walking and cycling was "extremely worrying" and warned that it could lead to higher rates of obesity and related illnesses. "It's time now for real joined-up thinking in Government. The recommendations from the taskforce on obesity - which include building more safe cycle ways to schools - have yet to be implemented.

    "Parents are rightly concerned that allowing their children to walk or cycle to school is putting them at added risk. This results in more parents driving their kids to school - making the problem worse."

    © The Irish Times


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