Reducing Children's Car Use: The Health And Potential Car Dependency Impacts



Source:  <http://www2.cege.ucl.ac.uk/cts/research/chcaruse/index.asp>
http://www2.cege.ucl.ac.uk/cts/research/chcaruse/index.asp



According to the National
<http://www.transtat.dft.gov.uk/tables/2000/nts/nts00.htm>  Travel Survey,
between 1985/86 and 1995/97 children aged 16 or less increased the
percentage of their trips by car from 35% to 48%. Over the same period the
percentage of trips to school by car went up from 16% to 29%. These trends
have led to significant decreases in the amounts of walking and cycling by
children. Whilst the reasons for these shifts are fairly clear: parental
concern about traffic and possible abduction, and changing lifestyles linked
to increased decentralisation, it is also clear that they may lead to
significant problems. As the 1998
<http://www.dft.gov.uk/itwp/paper/index.htm>  White Paper on Transport says:
`Not walking or cycling to school means that children get much less exercise
and builds in car dependency at an early age'. Whilst there is an intuitive
logic to this statement, it raises a number of important research issues.
The overall aim of this project is to address these issues.

The project was funded by the Engineering and Physical
<http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/>  Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The grant
started in January 2001 and was completed in February 2004. The research was
carried out at the Centre for Transport
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transport-studies/index.htm>  Studies at University
College London (UCL) <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/>  in collaboration with the
Department <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology/>  of Epidemiology and Public
Health Medicine at UCL <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/> , the Children's Health and
Exercise <http://www.ex.ac.uk/cherc/index.htm>  Research Centre at the
University of Exeter <http://www.ex.ac.uk/> , the Department of Public
Health <http://www.dphpc.ox.ac.uk/>  at the University of Oxford
<http://www.ox.ac.uk/> , the Environment
<http://enquire.hertscc.gov.uk/greenco/What/hcc.htm>  Department of
Hertfordshire County <http://www.hertsdirect.org/>  Council and Royston,
Buntingford <http://www.rbbs-pct.nhs.uk/>  & Bishop's Stortford Primary Care
Trust.

The following questions were addressed by the research:

* Can walking make a positive contribution to children's health?
* Does experience and education early in life influence attitudes to
car use and ownership in later life?
* Are initiatives which cause a transfer from the car to other modes
effective?
* Can differences in the way that children travel influence their
cognitive skills?

The project involved fieldwork in the form of attitudinal surveys and
measuring and monitoring children's activity patterns and degrees of
obesity, and the design of an evaluation framework to examine the input of
initiatives to encourage walking.

Information was obtained about the children's activity patterns including
travelling to school, plus various background information about the children
and their households, and to measure the children's activity patterns and
degree of obesity at various points in time relative to new travel to school
initiatives.

The Principal Investigator and Project Manager was Roger Mackett
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transport-studies/rlm.htm> , Professor of Transport
Studies at UCL <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/> . The research team at UCL
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/>  consisted of Lindsey Lucas, James Paskins and Dr
Jill Turbin. Professor Neil Armstrong
<http://www.ex.ac.uk/cherc/ARMSTRONG.htm>  of the Children's Health and
<http://www.ex.ac.uk/cherc/index.htm>  Exercise Research Centre at the
University <http://www.ex.ac.uk/>  of Exeter and Dr
<http://www.dphpc.ox.ac.uk/bhfhprg/Group1.htm#Laurel>  Laurel Edmunds of the
Department of <http://www.dphpc.ox.ac.uk/>  Public Health at the University
of Oxford <http://www.ox.ac.uk/>  provided expertise on measuring children's
physical activity patterns and relating these to health issues. Expertise on
children's health and its relationship with transport was provided by
Professor Mark <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology/hsr/mccarthy.html>
McCarthy of the Department of <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology/>
Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at UCL <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/> .
Information about the journey to school initiatives and their implementation
and potential impacts was provided by the Environment
<http://enquire.hertscc.gov.uk/greenco/What/hcc.htm>  Department of
Hertfordshire CC. Dissemination of the research findings to health
professionals and subsequent recommendations on how research in this area
can inform evaluation of local healthy transport initiatives was undertaken
by Adrian Coggins of Royston, <http://www.rbbs-pct.nhs.uk/>  Buntingford &
Bishop's Stortford Primary Care Trust.





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