Park the car, mum, we’d rather walk

CHILDREN overwhelmingly prefer to walk or cycle to school rather than travel by car, according to a new study.

It is the first time researchers have asked children how they felt about the morning commute to school.

The AUT University survey revealed a staggering 96 per cent of children preferred active modes of travel, despite the majority of kids travelling by car.

Many of the Auckland children surveyed said they liked socialising, being outdoors, playing games and talking ‘‘ Star Wars and Lego’’ on their way to school.

Mum Ruth Larsen said her children Grace, 6, and James Larsen, 5, love seeing the pohutakawa trees in blossom, occasionally getting an icecream and using umbrellas on rainy days on their walk to school.

The Larsens walk 15 minutes from their Northcote home to St Mary’s School in Auckland.

‘‘It would have been obscene if we drove because it’s so close,’’ Ruth Larsen said.

‘‘It’s made life easier. We don’t have to think about car seats and traffic.’’

The children bump into friends along the way so it’s a social trip, she said. Her family is in the minority. The proportion of primary aged children commuting by car almost doubled to 55 per cent in the past 25 years, according to the Ministry of Transport.

AUT study author Erica Hinckson said all schools should have active transport programmes to encourage people to get out of cars.

‘‘We need to get our children active and make our cities childfriendly,’’ she said.

‘‘There is so many benefits to it. They kids want to be out there, not sitting in the car.’’

Increasing the number of children who walk and cycle to school would reduce congestion and make roads safer, she said.

Hinckson said she was frustrated that some schools don’t have active travel programmes, such as the walking school bus, despite the fact they work.

Auckland Transport’s Travelwise programme has been encouraging more children to walk to school and improving road safety since 2005.

Three-quarters of all Auckland school-aged students now attend a Travelwise School.

The programme has reduced cycle and walking accidents around schools and removed 12,736 car trips from the morning peak hour.

Success from these programmes has seen the trend for walking to school begin to reverse.

The proportion of primary aged children walking to school increased from 22 to 29 per cent between 2007 and 2014.