National recommendation for more active transports to school

Active transportation to school, such as walking or cycling, is what is best for children. This according to researchers in a new child consequence analysis. By creating a national recommendation, they want to inspire parents to allow their children to be active on the way to school, and community planners to create the right conditions.

Together with a number of national actors in traffic safety and health, researchers at Luleå University of Technology and the The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) have created a proposal for a national recommendation on school transport. They recommend that children should walk, cycle or otherwise actively get to school. The recommendation is based on an analysis of health, traffic safety, sustainability, and children's freedom of movement. It is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and that the best interest of the child is a fundamental principle. Physical activity has a positive impact on young people's physical and mental health and ability to learn. Despite this, children in Sweden are becoming less and less active. Over 80 percent of Swedish children do not get enough physical activity.

“Our aim is to bring about a change in norms and in the system. Our approach is to find out what is best for the children, and to believe in children's abilities,” says Anna-Karin Lindqvist, Associate Professor of Physiotherapy at Luleå University of Technology.

Since 2016, the researchers have worked with projects on active school transport. Among other things, they have created a model for how schools can work with active school transport, in collaboration with municipalities. But it is not only at school that the researchers want to raise the issue. The recommendation is aimed at parents and community planners.

”It may seem like a simple question, but becomes complex because it involves traffic safety issues, norms, parents' concerns, and maintenance issues,” says Stina Rutberg, Associate Professor of Physiotherapy at Luleå University of Technology.

According to the researchers, the prevailing norm that children are not mature enough to ride a bicycle by themselves before the age of twelve is a norm that lacks scientific support.

“There are traffic environments where eight-year-olds can cycle to school by themselves, as there are traffic environments where not even adults should walk or cycle,” says Stina Rutberg.

Paradoxically, parents letting of children by car creates an unsafe traffic situation near the schools. In studies where children are interviewed, it also turns out that many want to walk or cycle.

“The problem is not the children; it is the parents. They love their children and drive them to school out of care, but misguided care. Being a parent is not easy, there is so much you have to decide on. Through the recommendation, we want to make it easier to choose what is best for the children,” says Anna-Karin Lindqvist.

From VTI, among others, Anna Niska, Senior Research Leader, has been involved in research  for the recommendation. She believes that the children's perspective is often lost when community planners focus on work commuting, for example when it comes to infrastructure, bicycle parking, or road maintenance.

“The goal is to reduce the number of parents who drive their children to school, and parents' incentives must go hand in hand with the infrastructure. It could, for example, concern planning so that parents who arrive by car can leave their children without risking the safety of other children,” says Anna Niska.

• Prövning och analys av barnets bästa när det gäller nationell rekommendation för aktiva skolresor – en barnkonsekvensanalys External link, opens in new window.
  Read more about the recommendation and analysis (in Swedish)
• https://www.dn.se/debatt/sluta-skjutsa-barnen-till-skolan-halsa-gar-fore-radsla/ External link, opens in new window.