The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department encourages students to walk and bike to school because there are so many benefits. Among them:
• Students who walk or bike to school are healthier.
• Research has shown exercise before school helps children arrive focused and ready to learn.
• Students who walk and bike frequently when they are young are more likely to continue these activities into adulthood.
• When walking or biking, parents and children get an opportunity to bond and appreciate things they don’t notice while driving — listening to the sounds of the neighborhood, seeing friends and neighbors and feeling connected with their community.
• Fewer cars on the road means less traffic and congestion and cleaner air.
The Health Department’s goal is to reverse the growing rate of childhood inactivity. In 1969, about 50 percent of children in the United States walked or biked to school. Today, less than 15 percent do. Walking and bicycling to school enables children to incorporate the regular physical activity they need each day while also forming healthy habits that can last a lifetime.
Regular physical activity helps children build strong bones, muscles and joints, and it decreases the risk of chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
Michael Showalter, Health Promotion Specialist and Safe Routes to School coordinator, says: “Physical inactivity is at crisis proportions in America. In the coming decade, preventable chronic health conditions are expected to overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death in Kansas. Kids are wired for physical activity, and the research is clear: If we want students to be healthier and perform better in school,
we have to give them every opportunity to move.”