My kids run to catch their bus in the morning, walk up the hill at the end of the day, and only see our family in a vehicle when a friend loans me his (which I help store, but use maybe once a week)

They are the “least case scenario” in their school for obesity.
Many of their friends at primary age show obesity (no, it’s not puppy fat!) and have little exercise due to private transport, after-school care and sedentary computer games as their primary recreation at home (some, because their parents don’t want them to play out where it’s dangerous) and are bribedfor good behaviour weekly with McD’s on Friday night.

And most of the parents regard me as the greenie nutter, but are amazed at how healthy and intelligent my kids are….

One interesting study in the UK - by Meyer and Hillman - looked at the effects of independent mobility on children’s mental wellbeing. Being able to walk or cycle to school by yourself (and just play in the neighborhood) is really fundamental to developing a health sense of self.

I love the above comment from Stuey and I have been looking for something to do to those posters……. Thank you!

Re the first comment that total mortality in childhood is lower - not true. Mortality is highest in the first few years of life and the last few. There is also a male-only blip in the 15-25 age group (cars of course). Cancer in particular peaks in childhood (when the body is growing rapidly) and after 40.

It says “Our Kids are being run over. The roads no playground.” Well I disagree, the road should be a playground, that message should say…

“Our Kids are being run over. The roads no racetrack.”

Personally whenever I see someone hooning alone in a car, I stand out in the road enough so they can see me, and make the wanker gesture at them.

Anyone who wants to see a way out of this needs to start with Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language”. It is a work of genius.

Links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_language
http://downlode.org/etext/patterns/

But also: encouraging kids to walk and bike while young, instead of riding in the car to school, has long-lasting affects on their habits. That, in turn, has more affect on their health than just about anything else. Your chance of being hit by a car while biking to school is comparatively low. Your chance of dying of heart disease in your 50s because you drive instead of biking to work is much higher. With the slow and steady decline of organised sport, individual exercise habits such as biking and walking are becoming even more important.

And that’s just on the purely selfish side of things, without considering pollution, etc…

It’s utterly mad to be talking about building a new coastal highway so people can get to jobs in Wellington, when the jobs could be moved to where people live. Businesses like to clump together which lowers their operating costs, the costs are transferred to workers who have to pay for their transport. All very neat.

The existence of a car-based society, with all the dangers, deaths and damage it creates, is so taken for granted it becomes unchallengeable, meanwhile people try and ban trivial hazards, such as fireworks, which don’t have powerful champions.

One effect of road traffic campaigns is to scare parents into thinking their kids are *likely* to be killed on the roads, when actually they are highly unlikely to be killed. So they aren’t allowed to walk and play outside and their health and social development suffers.