The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 19 percent of U.S. children walk to school most days. A separate Georgia survey showed that number was only 4.2 percent.
Almost half of Georgia children ride a school bus, and 43.3 percent are driven to school by an adult. A small number used some other mode of transportation, such as a city bus.
The CDC has named increasing the number of kids who walk to school as a national health objective. The agency said at least 50 percent of children who live less than a mile from school should be walking or cycling by 2010.
Obesity rates in Georgia doubled from 1991 to 2000, the CDC said, and the state ranks 39th in the level of physical exercise, according to the report.
``We need to build physical activity into a child's daily routine,'' said Jessica Shisler, a CDC public health expert who worked on Georgia's survey.
The solution, experts say, is to make walking routes safer and to build schools closer to neighborhoods where pupils live. In the national survey, parents listed long distances and traffic as the top reason their kids don't walk.
Other parents worried about crime. Lawrenceville mom Tracy Power does not allow her 10-year-old to walk to school alone, even though school is less than a mile away.
``You hear too many things about kids getting picked up,'' she said.
Laura Kraemer, a New York nurse who started a childhood fitness program called Slimkids, also cited crime as a major barrier to students walking to school. She said children need more exercise, but it should come at school-supervised playtime, not unsupervised walks to school.
``Parents are afraid to let their kids walk. I don't see that changing,'' Kraemer said.
The CDC pointed to community programs that have succeeded in making school walks safer. In Marin County, Calif., a San Francisco suburb, a two-year campaign for safer paths and bike lanes doubled the number of students who used them.
The Marin County Bicycle Coalition asked parents to walk the routes to school and keep a list of hazards, such as uneven sidewalks or intersections without crosswalks. Then the parents lobbied the local government to fix the problems.
``We pitched it to parents as way kids could rediscover the joys of walking and biking,'' coalition director Deb Hubsmith said. ``It's been such a success because it's showed us how healthy a community can be when we don't rely on the car for every single trip."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/8/191283