It’s back to school for thousands of school kids in the Tri-Cities this week.
And back to school means back to traffic.
In too many cases, traffic around schools is simply parents driving their kids to school.
In some cases, kids are driven from outside a school’s catchment to access programs of choice. In many cases, parents are concerned about safety and their children walking to school.
Ironically, of course, the more people who drive their kids to school, the less safe it is for those walking.
But walking is healthy both for individual children and school communities. Doing so provides increasingly sedentary kids with exercise and gives them a mental boost before they spend much of the day sitting.
As well, the power of habit is important. Get into the habit of walking or biking while in elementary school and that will be more likely to carry through the teen years into adulthood.
Sadly, today only about half the number of kids walk to school than did when their parents were children.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
