Technology-based solutions are being explored but it is widely recognized that these cannot offer the immediate solutions that are required (apart from low technology solutions such as removing barriers to walkable communities and cycling).

Of the options examined, reducing kilometres driven appears to be the only one which could meet both the stabilization and 20 per cent reduction targets (for carbon dioxide emissions) by 2005 (4).

While many technology solutions are welcome, it is important to question whether a sustainable transportation future simply involves a transfer of our auto-dependency to cleaner vehicles. Research regarding the impacts of cars on children suggests that reducing our car use is also an important goal (5). Technology that improves air quality will mitigate some of the negative impacts on children. However, we may anticipate that the acceptability of cleaner vehicles will reinforce auto-dependency. The sedentary lifestyle that children and youth have adopted, the number of traffic fatalities and injuries, restricted independent mobility and impoverishment of childhood experiences are likely to persist. Therefore, our efforts towards technology-based solutions must be coupled with strategies to influence driver behaviour.

Proposals for more compact, mixed-use communities, increased used of public transit, user fees, and trip reduction are all tied to the need for greater public awareness and education. The Transportation and Climate Change Collaborative (6) has proposed a number of education and awareness strategies. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy's "The Road to Sustainable Transportation in Canada: State of the Debate" (7) says the following:

Increasing public awareness is the most significant step needed to lay the groundwork for effective action. As part of a sustainable transportation strategy, public education is needed to:

Inform individuals of the risks and costs of current transportation trends.

Educate individuals about steps they can take to contribute to sustainable transportation.

Build public support for the political actions that will be necessary for sustainable transportation.

A critical question then is how do we educate for sustainable transportation and also influence driver behaviour? Dr. McKenzie-Mohr has published an on-line Guide for Fostering Sustainable Behaviour (8). He writes:

Most programs to foster sustainable behaviour rely upon large-scale information campaigns. These campaigns are usually based on one of two perspectives regarding changing behaviour. The first perspective assumes that changes in behaviour are brought about by increasing public knowledge about an issue, such as decreasing landfill capacity, and by fostering attitudes that are supportive of a desired activity, such as recycling. Accordingly, programs based on this perspective attempt to alter behaviour by providing information, through media advertising, and frequently the distribution of brochures, flyers and newsletters.

McKenzie-Mohr concludes that "numerous studies document that education alone often has little or no effect upon sustainable behaviour." Changing attitudes and values does not automatically lead to changes in behaviour. McKenzie-Mohr outlines a strategic approach for Fostering Sustainable Behaviour through community-based social marketing which is being incorporated into car trip reduction projects. The Way To Go! school program (9) and Active and Safe Routes to School (10) across Canada have been employing an informal process of community-based social marketing. These programs are now examining methods to formally incorporate the tools and methodology of community-based social marketing.

David Engwicht (11) of Australia, has also postulated that information dissemination alone will not change driving behaviour to the extent required. Building on the work of McKenzie-Mohr and Engwicht, I have been researching the impact of our auto-dependency on children. My aim is to compile a comprehensive body of literature that can be used to appeal to the value drivers hold for our children. Raising the profile of children's needs and feelings may touch the emotional chord which drivers need to hear. However, as McKenzie-Mohr rightly states, knowing that we should change our behaviour is not enough. Changing norms, providing prompts, obtaining public commitments identifying and removing barriers are all significant for success.

My preliminary research suggests that parents are deeply concerned when they learn about the impacts of cars on children. However, few are aware of the extensive nature of these impacts. While public outreach strategies have focussed on convincing people to reduce the number of kilometres they drive, become more physically active, and run more fuel efficient cars, the role of children has often been overlooked. There is a need to raise the profile of children in sustainable transportation planning and education. The impacts of cars on children as well as the opportunities to foster sustainable behaviour bear further investigation. We may learn that parents are more receptive to information about child-friendly transportation than sustainable transportation.

A review of the literature on children and transportation indicates that most articles address several impacts of cars on children, including youth. Often the points that are stressed relate to rising levels of obesity, traffic fatalities, risks associated with physical inactivity and air pollution. The impacts are far more comprehensive and may cause us to explore the responsibility that we as a society may have for putting childhood at risk.

The following is a brief overview of the impacts of cars on children:

• Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death in Canada for children over the age of one year (12).
• Fewer than half of Canadian children now walk to school (13). This figure drops to 10 per cent in the United States (14).
• Two out of three Canadian children do not meet average physical activity guidelines to achieve optimum growth and development (15).
• More than a quarter of Canadian and American children and youth are overweight (15).
• Heavy traffic has reduced the independent mobility of children and youth (16).
• Opportunities and locations for spontaneous play are severely restricted by traffic (17).
• Children who survive traffic accidents may suffer from emotional distress for a considerable amount of time, unless treated. This may include depression, recurring nightmares, difficulty attending to schoolwork, fear of cars (18).
• There appears to be no threshold for ozone levels that are safe and children are particularly susceptible (19).
• Children may be more vulnerable to airborne pollution because their airways are narrower than those of adults (19).
• Children also have markedly increased needs for oxygen relative to their size. They breathe more rapidly and inhale more pollutant per pound of body weight than do adults. In addition, they may spend more time engaged in vigorous outdoor activities than adults (19).
• Exposure to traffic noise has been linked to reduced reading levels in children (possibly due to reduced auditory discrimination) (20).
• In Canada, approximately 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation. These are contributing to global warming which will have long-term impacts on children (21).

Their children no longer find walking normal, and complain if asked to walk short distances, unless they are in a natural park setting. Parents talked about their fear of allowing their children to move around independently in the neighbourhood. They wonder at what age it will feel safe to permit this and how their children will develop the skills to deal with their environment alone. One father spoke of his son's need to socialize with his friends, and realized that this is completely dependent on the availability of parents to drive.

When asked if a week-long campaign highlighting the impacts of cars on children would change driving behaviour the focus group participants stated that it would probably change only a few people. They recommend that the information should be presented many times over until it is common knowledge. The greatest impact, they feel would come if their children asked them to drive less. Parents suggested that children should be learning about sustainable transportation at school and influencing their parents.

It's interesting to note that parents responded to the less tangible, qualitative impacts of cars on their children. This is an area that has received little research attention. Cars and the impoverishment of childhood experience has been raised by Sandqvist (22).

From children's point of view, cars and traffic in neighbourhoods is deleterious and undesirable. Children lose opportunities for learning from first-hand interaction with the real world and with adults and other children in their neighbourhood. Modern children increasingly live a world of vicarious experience provided by television and computers.

In Canada, surveys (23) indicate that approximately 50 per cent of children walk to school. Fewer and fewer, then have the experience and memories that go along with walking to school. We are creating more sedentary lifestyles where many children are chauffeured from point 'A' to point 'B' in "adult-sized" trips rather than "kid-sized" trips. (Anyone who has tried to coerce a child to walk quickly knows that as adults we tend to be concerned with getting to our destination-kids are more engaged with living along the way.)

What is the significance of this? How important are those lingering, sensory experiences that many of us can remember from our childhood-playing with mud puddles, kicking through piles of autumn leaves, and chatting with buddies along the way to school? While the research in this area is scanty, we do have anecdotal indications.

One retired British teacher has written about the loss of lived experiences of his students. He writes:

I found it increasingly difficult to stimulate children's writing and artwork because there was so little in the way of stored experience for them to use... If I wanted children to write about walking in the rain I had to suggest just about everything because so few of them had walked in the rain... Not one, not one of them had the chance to feel raindrops running down their backs. Had any of them walked in the morning fog? Not one. Had they had the chance to walk into the teeth of a howling wind? Had they felt the full force of a hailstorm? Of course not (24).

Fostering Sustainable Transportation Behaviour

Fortunately, we have a tremendous opportunity to learn from a Canadian initiative that is working with parents and children to change driving behaviour. Its the Way To Go! school program in British Columbia. The program begins from the premise that parents and teachers are concerned about traffic safety, particularly at drop off and pick up times at school. Increasing traffic congestion and aggressive drivers have led to the creation of a new term, "parent drop off rage."

The coordinator of Way To Go!, Bernadette Kowey, works with Parent Advisory Councils to analyze the nature of their concerns and implement strategies for reducing traffic. Children become involved in neighbourhood mapping and surveys, creating bar charts to indicate transportation patterns. While each school is free to implement its own strategy, many develop Walking School Bus programs, "Walking Wednesdays" which invariably lead to Walking Thursdays, Fridays, and so on.

Parents, teachers and children identify barriers to walking and cycling and develop plans to remove barriers whenever possible. The process leads to a new community culture-one might say, "a culture for sustainability." As the program unfolds, schools proudly identify themselves with statements such as, "we're a walking and cycling school."

The results of Way to Go! are impressive. Kowey anticipated that the program would be delivered to 300 British Columbia schools during its first year. The demand has been far greater. More than half the schools in British Columbia, 450 schools, have requested the Way To Go! kit. Many schools report a 50 per cent increase in the number of children walking. One school reduced the number of cars dropping off children from 150 to just four. Way To Go! is sponsored by the RoadSense Team: Autoplan brokers and Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC)-partners in road safety.

Way To Go! provides a model for us to learn from and support. Kowey sees it as a stepping stone towards a greater understanding of the impacts of our transportation choices. Her experience with parents verifies that parents can be motivated through concerns for their children. She also notes that many impacts of cars on children are not common knowledge for parents. One of the most striking discoveries which parents have reported to Kowey relates to the impoverishment of childhood experiences. Parents are astonished to learn that their children do not know the route home from school, even though this may be only three blocks. One parent recounted that on a particularly rainy day she was tempted to lapse into the old pattern of picking up her children. She imagined them walking home, becoming cold, miserable and wet. She resisted the urge to pick them up. To her delight and surprise, the children arrived home singing at the top of their lungs, having thoroughly enjoyed their new experience. "I would have deprived them of that if I had driven," reflected their mother.

Parents in the Way To Go! program are beginning to ask the question, "What are we doing to our children?" As the habit of driving gives way to walking and cycling, parents are recognizing that their children have been deprived of many interesting and perhaps critical, experiences. Both Kowey and parents are asking for more information. They would like to have wider reporting of the impacts of cars on children. They believe that more research is needed to understand the extent of the impoverishment of childhood experiences.

Recommendations for Strategic Directions

Applied research on children and sustainable transportation is needed. The Academy for Educational Development has recently published a literature review on reducing vehicle miles travelled, with a focus on youth. They write,

In the transportation research literature we found little material that pertained to youth and air pollution or VMT. We contacted more than 15 transportation/environment/engineering departments in universities across the United States, but none of them were doing research specifically in the field of environmental transportation and youth (25).

The York Centre for Applied Sustainability and the Centre for Sustainable Transportation are collaborating on research which will facilitate trip-reduction programs such as Way To Go!, and Active and Safe Routes to School. We have identified three areas that could provide essential information to parents. We will examine the current literature regarding the number of hours children are spending in cars, the data on in-vehicle air pollution and the impoverishment of childhood experience.

Interviews with child development experts and psychologists will explore the potential outcomes for children's health and well-being that may result from viewing the world through a windshield or bus window. Is this "vicarious" experience truly detrimental, and if so, how would it be manifested? How can we measure this impact of cars on children?

Way to Go! provides an excellent framework for communicating research information that can then be applied to change behaviour. Parents who are sensitized to links between transportation and their children's health and social development needs are likely to embrace other solutions, including legislation. General public awareness campaigns may also be more effective once parents and children have become actively engaged in reducing car usage. For example, public transit companies could raise the profile of children's health and safety in their advertising. Corporate sponsors, particularly those associated with children, may be approached from the perspective of promoting sustainable transportation for the sake of children.

A challenging research opportunity exists regarding the Way To Go! program. Kowey reports that she repeatedly observes a transition in the schools applying the Way To Go! kit. The school cultures shifts towards one that views walking and cycling as the norm. Understanding this cultural shift and learning how to extend it throughout the neighbourhood would assist the transition towards sustainable transportation.

Conclusion

Serious attention and substantial funding for programs such as Way To Go! and Active and Safe Routes to School provide cost effective and sustainable behaviour change in mobility patterns. Their community-based approach, which creates change at both the individual level and community level may prove to be more efficient than conventional public education and awareness campaigns. The delivery of these programs also provides additional benefits for children's health and well-being. They may lay the foundation for building a sense of community in which a culture for sustainability will flourish.

Finally, I would like to appeal to those of us engaged in research and implementation strategies regarding sustainable transportation to note the absence of children in our discourse. Very often, reports refer to "moving people and goods," examining mobility patterns, increasing efficiencies, and so on. The "people" envisioned in many studies and reports are generally adults. Even though the term appears inclusive, youth and child mobility needs and impacts generally go unnoticed. If we attend more to children and youth, we may also find that we communicate more effectively in attempts to foster sustainable transportation.

We need multiple strategies and mechanisms for out transition towards sustainable transportation. Raising the profile of children in transportation discussions is a starting point. Coupling public awareness with social marketing and opportunities for positive action are critical. Expanding our knowledge regarding the impact of cars on children will enhance programs aimed at changing driving behaviour.

References

1. Transport Canada, "Sustainable Development Strategy." 1997.
   
   
2. National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. State of the Debate: The Road to Sustainable Transportation in Canada. Ottawa, 1997.
   
   
3. Centre for Sustainable Transportation. Sustainable Transportation Monitor. Toronto, No. 1, March 1998.
   
   Centre for Sustainable Transportation. Inquiry into Sustainable Transportation. Toronto, 1998.
   
   
4. Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy. "Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Ontario Automotive Sector." Toronto, November 1995, p.62.
   
   
5. Blitzer Golombek, S. A Sociological Image of the City Through Children's Eyes. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
   
   Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. "Physical Inactivity Crisis of Children and Youth Continues to Worsen." News release, Feb. 2, 1998.
   
   Chaput Waksler, F. (Ed.) Studying the Social World's of Children. New York: The Falmer Press, 1991.
   
   Drake, G. "Why Johnny Won't Ride." Bicycling. March, 1999.
   
   Garbarino, J. "An Ecological Perspective on the Role of Play in Child Development" in Bloch. M and Pellegrini, D. (Eds.) The Ecological Context of Children's Play. New Jersey: ABLEX Publishing Corporation, 1989.
   
   Globe and Mail, "Driving the Kids to school." Vancouver, September 16, 1997.
   
   Greenpeace. "Pollution Levels Inside Cars Up To Eighteen Times Higher Than Those Outside" . News Release, London, 1992.
   
   Louv, R. Childhood's Future. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990.
   
   Moore, R. Childhood's Domain: Play and Place in Child Development. London: Crom Helm, 1986.
   
   Moore, R. "Before and After Asphalt: Diversity as an Ecological Measure of Quality in Children's Outdoor Environments" in Bloch. M and Pellegrini, D. (Eds.) The Ecological Context of Children's Play. New Jersey: ABLEX Publishing Corporation, 1989.
   
   Nabhan, G. and Trimble, S. The Geography of Childhood. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
   
   North York Mirror. "School walk brings families closer." Toronto, September 12, 1998.
   
   Packard, V. Our Endangered Children: Growing Up in a Changing World. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1983.
   
   Toronto Star. "Allergies up 40 per cent, agency says." Toronto, April 12, 1994.
   
   Toronto Star. "Auto mishaps called biggest cause of trauma stress disorder." Toronto, September 20, 1993.
   
   
6. Public Education and Outreach Issue Table. Public Outreach on Climate Change Foundation Paper. National Climate Change Secretariat, Canada, October 31, 1998.
   
   
7. National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. State of the Debate: The Road to Sustainable Transportation in Canada. Ottawa, 1997, p. 23.
   
   
8. McKenzie-Mohr, D. Fostering Sustainable Behaviour: Online Guide to Community-Based Social Marketing, St Thomas University, www.cbsm.com.
   
   
9. Way to Go! School Program
   
   The Way to Go School Program fosters safer, healthier travel alternatives for children attending elementary schools. Its goal is to enable more children to walk, bike, carpool or take public transit to school with their families, friends and neighbours. Way To Go! offers assistance in the form of a manual and resource kit.
   
   Information may be obtained at their web site, www.waytogo.icbc.bc.ca.
   E-Mail: waytogo@bc.sympatico.ca  Tel: (604) 732-1511  Fax: (604) 733-0711
   
   Kowey, Hunter and Associates. "Design and Development of A School Trip Reduction Program for the Greater Vancouver Regional District." Vancouver. 1998.
   
   Kowey, B. "The Journey to School: Making it Safer by Reducing Traffic at School Sites and Increasing Pedestrian and Driver Education Opportunities." Proceedings of the Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference XI. Halifax. May 9-12, 1999.
   
   
10. Active and Safe Routes to School
    
    Active and Safe Routes to School is a national program encouraging the use of active modes of transportation to and from school. Components of the program include Walking School Buses, Biking School Buses, promotion of no-idling zones for cars around schools, group pick-up spots, busing drop-off zones a kilometre or so from school, mapping activities and community infrastructure changes.
    
    Information may be obtained at their web site, www.goforgreen.ca.
    E-Mail: info@goforgreen.ca  Tel: (613) 562-5313  Fax: (613) 562-5314
    
    Hunt, C. "Active/Safe Routes to School: Literature Review and Summary of Key Informant Interviews." Canadian Institute of Child Health. Ottawa,1998.
    
    
11. Engwicht, D. Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns - Better Living with Less Traffic. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 1993.
    
    
12. Canadian Institute of Child Health. The Health of Canada's Children: A CICH Profile (2nd Edition), Ottawa, 1994.
    
    
13. Go for Green. "Major Benefits to Health and Environment Seen if Canadians Within 30 Minutes Regularly Cycled or Walked to School, Work." News Release, 1998.
    
    
14. Centers for Disease Control. Effects of the Pedestrian and Cycling Environment on Physical Activity in Adults and Children, Atlanta, 1998.
    
    
15. Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, 1995 Physical Activity Monitor. Ottawa, 1995. Centers for Disease Control. Effects of the Pedestrian and Cycling Environment on Physical Activity in Adults and Children, Atlanta, 1998.
    
    
16. Hillman, M. and Adams, J. "Children's Freedom and Safety." Children's Environments. Volume 9, No. 2, 1992 (10-22).
    
    
17. Tranter, P. and Doyle, J. "Reclaiming the residential street as play space." International Play Journal, 4, 1996, (81-97).
    
    
18. Canterbury, R. and Yule, W. "The effects on children of road accidents," in Mitchel, M. (Ed.) The Aftermath of Road Accidents: Psychological, social and legal consequences of an everyday trauma. New York: Routledge,1996.
    
    
19. York Centre for Applied Sustainability and Pollution Probe. "Clearing the Air" Transportation, Air Quality and Human Health Conference. Toronto, 1996.
    
    
20. Bronzaft, A. "Beware: Noise is Hazardous to Our Children's Development." Hearing Rehabilitation Quarterly. New York: League for the Hard of Hearing, Volume 20, No. 3, 1995.
    
    
21. National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. State of the Debate: The Road to Sustainable Transportation in Canada. Ottawa, 1997.
    
    
22. Sandqvist, K. "Are automobiles really benign members of the modern family?" International Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, Stockholm, August 2-6, 1998, p.4.
    
    
23. Go for Green. "Major Benefits to Health and Environment Seen if Canadians Within 30 Minutes Regularly Cycled or Walked to School, Work." News Release, 1998. Hunt, C. "Active/Safe Routes to School: Literature Review and Summary of Key Informant Interviews." Canadian Institute of Child Health. Ottawa,1998.
    
    
24. Berry, K. "Walking to school, rain or shine." http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~davidp/walk.html.
    
    
25. Dable, A., Smith, W., and Bossi, R. "Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled - Review of Recent Research." Academy of Educational Development. Washington, 1993, p.3.
    
    

• Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death in Canada for children over the age of one year (Canadian Institute for Child Health, 1994).
• Less than half of Canadian children now walk to school. (Go for Green, 1998). This figure drops to 10 per cent in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998).
• 2 out of 3 Canadian children do not meet average physical activity guidelines to achieve optimum growth and development (CFLRI, 1995).
• More than a quarter of Canadian and American children and youth are overweight (CFLRI, 1997. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998).
• There appears to be no threshold for ozone levels that are safe, and children are particularly susceptible (Transportation, Air Quality and Human Health Conference,1996).
• Children may be more vulnerable to airborne pollution because their airways are narrower than those of adults, (Transportation, Air Quality and Human Health Conference,1996).
• Children also have markedly increased needs for oxygen relative to their size. They breathe more rapidly and inhale more pollutant per pound of body weight than do adults. In addition, they may spend more time engaged in vigorous outdoor activities than adults, (Transportation, Air Quality and Human Health Conference,1996).
• Heavy traffic has reduced the independent mobility of children and youth (Tranter, 1996. Hillman, M. and Adams, J., 1992).
• Opportunities and locations for spontaneous play are severely restricted by traffic (Hillman, M. and Adams, J., 1992. Garbarino, 1989. Moore, R., 1986).
• Exposure to traffic noise has been linked to reduced reading levels in children, (possibly due to reduced auditory discrimination), (Bronzaft, A. ,1995).
• Children who survive traffic accidents may suffer from emotional distress for a considerable amount of time, unless treated. This may include depression, recurring nightmares, difficulty attending to school work, fear of cars (Canterbury, R. and Yule, W., 1996).
• In Canada, approximately 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation. These are contributing to global warming which will have long term impacts on children. (NRTEE, 1997).