Children's travel behaviour and its implications for their health

Children’s travel behaviour is different from that of adults in several ways, for example, they have less choice about where they go, because parents control many of their trips, and they are often not allowed to travel unescorted by an older person, so there tend to be interdependencies with other people’s travel. There have been a number of changes in the factors that influence children’s travel behaviour in recent years, including the development of car-oriented lifestyles, increased numbers of mother in employment, and changes in attitudes towards children’s independent mobility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of children’s travel behaviour, and the implications of this for their volumes of physical activity and so for their health. The paper draws upon research carried out in projects carried out at the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London on children’s travel and physical activity. The paper commences by considering the nature of children’s travel and how it differs from that of adults. Trends in children’s travel and the influence of factors such as the effects of increasing separation of home and school and children’s independent mobility are considered. The impacts of children’s travel patterns on traffic and on their health are discussed. Having shown that the trends in children’s travel behaviour are causing reductions in their volumes of physical activity, a number of actions being adopted in Britain to try to reverse the trends, are described. Conclusions are drawn in terms of the implications for policy and how some of the difficult issues raised in the paper can be addressed.