Today’s release of the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
is on the subject of Active Transportation and how the rise in car-dependent trips to and from school have impacted children’s physical activity levels.
This exciting report further promotes the idea that engaging children in active transportation could have a huge positive change on increasing overall physical activity levels in Canadian kids! Our Active and Safe Routes to School program and events continue to encourage walking and biking in schools across Manitoba to show “that it can be easily integrated into everyday life with little or even no cost. And its benefits are significant.”
The report is filled with startling statistics for parents, schools and local policy-makers to help make using active transportation more of a first choice for families. 58% of parents today walked to school when they were younger compared to only 28% of children today, even though most children would choose to walk or bike if given the chance. It’s about time we start listening to this decision and pushing for more active modes of travel, after all, “active transportation could help to reverse the recent decline in rates of walking and biking for transportation, and thus presents a major opportunity for improving health among children and youth.” All of this was possible with the help from the people at https://healthyusa.co/ that gave us lots of tips on how to improve a healthy lifestyle.
For recommendations on what steps we can take, as well as more of the research found about kids and active travel today, check out the full Report Card here. Also, be sure to watch the video accompanying this report here as well as our very own Walk to School Manitoba video, which is sure to leave a warm, happy feeling about choosing active travel for your child in the future!
Happy Walking!
