Land use issues, liability, technology and danger are among the reasons given for the sedentary lifestyle of today’s kids. All of these factor in to some degree, but there is always a larger underlying cause for widespread behaviors, usually of cultural origin.
Due to changes in our society, children no longer walk or bike to get around, as they did in previous generations. Cars are their primary source of transportation. Parents, or other adults, drive them from one place to another. So they grow up seeing cars as necessary for transportation.
According to statistics bandied about by advocates of walking and biking for kids, in 1960 48 percent of children 5 to 14 years of age usually walked or biked to school. By 2009, that figure fell to 13 percent.
Organizations have sprouted up across the U.S. to combat the growing problem of inactivity in kids. There are even organizations dedicated to getting kids to walk or bike to school. Their message is that by creating safe routes to school, children will be able to bike or walk instead of taking a bus or being driven by parents.
Among the explanations for why kids no longer walk or bike to school is that land use restrictions caused towns to move schools to the outskirts of their communities where land was more abundant and cheaper. As a society designed around motorized transportation, it was deemed superior to build new schools rather than revamping aging neighborhood schools, which were often within a mile of students’ homes.
The old schools allowed generations of kids to transport themselves to school. Buildings were secondary to education — which consisted of books and knowledge — so old structures were not seen as an impediment to learning. But, as we moved into the 1970s, school buildings began to take on a new meaning.
Suddenly, kids needed state-of-the-art facilities to learn. Some of the additions were warranted, since they provided the technology needed to teach modern subjects. Nonetheless, a lot of emphasis was placed on a school’s teaching environment, in the form of bells and whistles, which made the old buildings unusable.
Kids benefited in one way, while losing out in another. They gained larger, more comfortable schools. Yet, they lost the proximity to those schools, particularly in the suburbs where many kids must travel a considerable distance each day to get to school.
Along with the loss of proximity came a loss of the freedom to transport oneself to school. In previous generations, kids would walk or ride their bikes to school with friends. They could leave home when they chose, as long as they arrived at school on time. No one made their schedule for them.
In addition to providing exercise for kids, this made them more self-reliant and taught them about responsibility. Reliance on motorized transportation, operated by adults, caused the loss of these valuable learning experiences.
Even when communities try to make it possible for kids to walk or bike to school — or even around their neighborhoods — liability rears its ugly head. Certain areas where children can ride safely are off-limits for them due to liability concerns. Many people don’t want to accept responsibility for a child sustaining an injury on their property. This includes schools.
In a litigious society, fear of liability often triumphs over children’s welfare and creates a vacuum in which children must reside. Perceptions of danger go hand in hand with fear of liability. Some parents and educators are afraid that kids will be assaulted on the way to school if allowed to travel there on their own.
Statistics show that assaults and kidnappings of kids are rare; when on their own, they are more likely to be injured by a car than a person. And only two percent of child kidnappings are perpetrated by strangers. Still, television shows featuring crimes against children play on parents’ fears and cause many parents to keep their children under constant supervision in the name of safety.
Other dangers come in the form of traffic. Speeding and traffic violations are the norm on American roads. Distracted driving has become commonplace. Our streets hardly seem safe for adults, let alone kids.
Aside from these obstacles, which keep kids from walking or biking to school, there have been vast cultural changes due to advances in technology. Previous generations of kids played outside. Some played sports; others played active games like tag, dodgeball, jump rope or hopscotch.
Today’s kids are “indoor kids.” They use a variety of electronic devices to play video games and communicate with other kids. The Internet provides an immediate source of research material for homework — unlike the libraries used in the past. And television plays a central role in their lives.
All of these technological activities share one thing in common: they require one to be sedentary.
That today’s kids are sedentary is not news. What is news is that their elders have begun to place a lot of emphasis on creating cities with accommodations for bicycling and walking. The goal is to reduce congestion and improve public health.
Advocates say “if you build it people will use it.” Today’s adults may use these accommodations, but tomorrow’s adults, who, today, are being raised to favor a sedentary lifestyle, may view these infrastructure changes as the advocates view the infrastructure of a car-centric society — as antiquated and unnecessary.
To create a society where congestion is reduced by using forms of transportation other than cars, we must look at the big picture. We must look beyond infrastructure and health objectives and look at the human side of the equation.
No amount of infrastructure will undo the childhood experiences of an entire generation. Both parents and educators must do more to encourage kids to walk and bike, not just to school, but to other places, as well.
Outdoor activities should also become part of children’s lives. Hiking, camping, boating, skiing, and ice skating are great family activities. Emphasizing the importance of being outdoors, and instilling an appreciation of nature, might encourage kids to engage in more physical activity. And, it might make forms of transportation which allow one to get a bit of “fresh air” (loosely speaking, given the prevalence of air pollution these days) more appealing.
No simple answers exist for creating a better future. However, certain things are within our control, such as recognizing the dangers to public health and individual welfare that come from large groups of people forgoing physical activity.
Obesity rates and lifestyle caused health problems are already on the rise. Adults are unlikely to make drastic behavioral changes, but kids might. To that end, we should aim to include a youth cultural shift towards human-powered locomotion in any livable street initiatives. Such an inclusion is our best chance of fending off future generations of citizens trapped in the downward spiral of a sedentary life.
