Is Driving to school safer?

During Bike to Work & School Week in May, my 5-year-old son accepted the challenge of bicycling four miles to his preschool. The trip took us a while, but we had a blast! He talked non-stop and arrived at school energized, confident and alert. We were hooked.
Forty years ago, the majority of kids walked or biked to school and, as a nation, we were a lot leaner. Today, bike and walk-to-school rates are closer to 5-15 percent, and nearly a third of children are overweight.

Inactivity has been identified as one of the major factors in childhood obesity. Many children are failing to get the recommended daily amount of physical activity. What better way to add exercise to a child's (and your) day than by incorporating it into their transportation?
Studies show that communities with more walkers and cyclists are healthier (take Europe for example). As walking and biking rates increase, obesity and diabetes rates decrease. Moreover, research indicates that exercise improves concentration, enhances creativity and allows children to manage stress better.
Most parents would argue that they drive their kids to school for their protection. But are we really making our children safer? In addition to being hard on the environment and increasing our risk of obesity, cars are hazardous to our health and safety in other ways.
Cars emit pollutants, and our children are being exposed to car exhaust when they arrive at school, when surrounded by too many cars. These pollutants include carbon monoxide (which blocks the transport of oxygen to the brain), sulfur dioxide (which poses the largest health risk to young children and asthmatics) and hazardous chemical compounds such as Benzene, acetaldehyde, and 1,3-butadiene (which are linked to birth defects, cancer and other serious illnesses).
Air quality inside our cars isn't much better. The EPA lists indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health. UV light releases a number of toxic chemicals that can cause serious health problems (including impaired learning). Fire retardants and phthalates present in the interior break down and are ingested as dust. Air in your car is a toxic soup of car exhaust and volatile organic compounds (such as formaldehyde), which aggravate allergy and asthma symptoms, cause cancer and lead to other neurological effects. Air pollution in a car is often worse than the air quality at the side of the road.
Considering that motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death of children, one could argue that kids are safer on bikes than in cars. Indeed, it is not the actual bike ride to school that is unsafe, as it is the arrival.
In the mayhem created by too many parents driving their kids to school, we are actually increasing our children's endangerment. By reducing the number of vehicles, we could reduce the chances of students being injured.
The good news is that pedestrian and bike-related deaths are on the decline nationally. And statistics show that the health benefits of biking outweigh the risks 20 to 1. Just three hours of bicycling per week can reduce your risk of heart disease by 50 percent. The average adult loses 13 pounds in their first year of commuting by bicycle.
With significant increases in the federal budget for pedestrian and bicycle programs, along with initiatives such as Safe Routes to School, non-motorized transportation to school is getting safer. And strength in numbers is a big part of the safety equation: the more kids that bike and walk, the safer it becomes.
A walk or bike ride to school with your children is a chance for quality time together. For older kids, it's an opportunity for independence and adventure. Twenty years from now our children will be thanking us for it.
Bevin Barber-Campbell lives in Bozeman with her family. She bikes our streets (almost) every day, including the two miles to Hawthorne Elementary School with her children.

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