Are our cities fit for children? A trade-off between comfort and health

Traffic congestion during school time is a common problem in almost all Indian cities. Every day, millions of students are accompanied by their parents to school in cars or two-wheelers. The remaining either walk, cycle or go by privately hired vans, school buses and public transport. However, if we look back 20 years, the story is probably different. The majority of children were going to school either by cycling or walking which are generally referred to as non-motorised or active travel. 

In the USA only, the active travel to school has decreased from 48% in 1969 to only 10% in 2020. The transition from non-motorized to motorised travel in school trips is not only due to lack of walking or cycling-friendly infrastructure. There are multiple reasons related to our preferences for travel such as safety concerns related to children, and social status along with supply-centric urban planning biases towards vehicles and partial implementation of neighbourhood schools. We adopted an opposite position in urban planning in juxtaposition to European cities. 

The reduction in active travel to school is mainly due to factors related to the built environment, socioeconomic status and psychological factors. Making wider roads only increases the number of cars and not the space for walking.

The decreasing trend in active travel is not only increasing traffic congestion but also health issues in children. Empirical evidence suggests that the sedentary lifestyle of children is resulting in obesity, depression, and cardiovascular diseases. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended a mile walk or two miles cycling every day to keep children active and healthy. However, due to lifestyle changes, kids are overburdened with study and thus play only indoor games leading to gadget addiction. Active travel to school is one of the best options to achieve daily exercise target. Not only this, it has been estimated that cars contribute 70% to lifecycle carbon emissions while cycles contribute only 1%. 

The tangible and intangible costs and benefits of active travel are estimated as high as 1:11 at a discount rate of 3.5% in New Zealand. Based on such evidence, many Western countries have launched dedicated programmes to increase walking and cycling among children. “Safe Routes to Schools” and “Walking School Bus” are such programmes in Europe, Canada, the USA, and Australia to encourage active travel to school. The estimated health benefit of active travel is approx. 300 rupees per mile per person. Thus, saving on health expenses is humungous in the life span of a human.

A paradigm shift to promote active travel is not an easy task in India due to socio-economic and cultural aspects. The perception of parents about non-motorised travel is more important than children’s own choice. The parents' travel choice regarding their children's school trips is a complex decision-making process that largely depends on the built environment and socioeconomic and psychological factors. Many recent studies have suggested that the latter two play a vital role in such decisions. 

The car being a status symbol in society and perceived high standard of living have contributed a lot to this transition. In addition to this, safety concerns related to street crimes and traffic have also increased a bias toward personal transport. It has been observed that parent’s decision about modal choices is not gender-neutral. Parents of girl child have more personal safety concerns than boy child, who has more traffic concerns.

School status also plays a major role in building the perception of parents about modal choices. Private schools are also considered as status symbols in society and thus parents with a certain level of income send their children to private schools and thus use cars due to affordability. This is one of the major barriers to our mindset which restricts active travel. The government has taken many initiatives for urban reforms including the e-vehicle promotion in public transport.

However, a more robust, holistic, and inclusive approach is required for the overall development of children by promoting an active lifestyle among them. Promotion of active travel to school is not the sole responsibility of the government but steps from civil society, parents, transport associations, and schools are inevitable. We all have to assimilate the “pedestrian first” policy in our behaviour to secure a healthy future for the country. 

(The views expressed are personal and not intended to criticise any policy or person. The author is IAS officer Ashish Kumar Srivastava of Uttarakhand cadre.)