467 #ClimateSolutions #FineCars => #ActiveKids
"London saw a surprising benefit to fining high-polluting cars: More active kids"
by Syris Valentine for Grist [Audio available] [Sept 17, 2024]
https://grist.org/cities/london-fining-polluting-cars-more-active-kids/
Quotes:
"Four in 10 London children stopped driving and started walking to school a year after the city's clean air zone went into effect."
"Four in 10 London children stopped driving and started walking to school a year after the city's clean air zone went into effect."
"In 2018.../\...researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University saw in the impending policy an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment. They recruited children aged 6 to 9 and their families in central London and in Luton .../\...for a multi-year study to investigate how the program might affect a child’s health."
"The responses allowed researchers to glean insights into their subjects’ activity levels, mental health, and other ancillary outcomes."
"...a year after the ultra-low emissions zone took effect, 2 out of every 5 London students in the study had switched from “passive” to “active” ways of getting to school. So instead of being chauffeured to school by their parents, the students started walking, biking, scootering, or taking public transit."
"The implications of getting kids active, even if it’s just for their pre-class commute, are intuitive but important.
“Walking and biking and scootering to school is better for the child, better for the family, and better for the environment,” said Alison Macpherson, an epidemiologist at York University in Toronto"
“It’s a great way for children to start their day,” she said. “You can imagine just being thrown in a car and thrown out of a car is not the most calming way.” Walking or biking to school, on the other hand, can be calming and conducive to concentration, Macpherson said, potentially even improving academic performance. But perhaps most importantly, at a time when an epidemic of childhood obesity is on the rise worldwide, walking or wheeling to and from school can get kids more active."
“There’s strong evidence that shows that it prevents weight gain, and also has benefits in terms of children’s physical development and mental health as well.”
"While the legislative gordian knot tied by federal laws that preempt cities from establishing low emissions zones waits to be unwound, cities across the country can improve the infrastructure that enables people to embrace walking, biking, or busing, said David Reichmuth, a senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ clean transportation program."
“We are on the way in making this switch from gasoline and diesel to electric vehicles, which is great,” Reichmuth said. “But really to meet our climate goals, we also just need to reduce the amount of driving. And these things that encourage or enable the ability for people to use active transportation are super important.”
“Active transportation is sustainable transportation,” Macpherson said, “and we have to not lose sight of all of the benefits that come with making the commute to school easier to do in an active and sustainable way.”
#TakeCareForLife #TakeCareForEarth
#StopBurnigThings #StopEcoside