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"Cycling to school makes you much fitter"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "A study of 6,000 schoolchildren in the east of England was published in the American College of Sports Medicine. It provides evidence that 10-16 year old boys who cycle regularly to school are 30% more likely to meet recommended fitness levels, while girls who cycle are 7 times more likely to do so.

    Those who cycled travelled an average of 1.5 miles, while half of those who were taken to school by car were making journeys of fewer than 2 miles.

    CTC will use this evidence to help convince the Department of Health that encouraging children and teenagers to cycle could play a major role in meeting the government’s physical activity targets."

    FROM CTC

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. wee folding bike
    Member

    Does it apply to the teachers too?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. Kim
    Member

    Given that only 19% of Scots children get enough daily exercise, this should be made a priority. Currently about 5% of primary school children and 2% of secondary school children cycle to school.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. wee folding bike
    Member

    I was talking to some S3 girls about this on Friday afternoon. They really wouldn't think of cycling to school. However all of the ones I talked to did walk there apart from one who stays a couple of miles away and gets the bus.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "Does it apply to the teachers too?"

    The obvious answer is yes.

    However there is a sub-question to all this -

    ("boys who cycle regularly to school are 30% more likely to meet recommended fitness levels, while girls who cycle are 7 times more likely to do so" etc.)

    'How long does the effect of such exercise last'.

    I mean that in two parts

    1) are fit(ter) children more likely to be generally fit in adult life

    2) are children walking/cycling to school more likely to do similar exercise as adults?

    If the answer is "yes" to either - then it ought to put even more pressure on (for instance) the Health Service to make sure that young people do the sort of 'exercise' that is likely to be 'sustainable' (dubious concept!).

    It's all very well for Governments (inc. Scottish one) to go on about x hours of PE per week (and fail to deliver) which relies on staff, sports halls, decent playground, changing rooms, willingness to do it etc.

    MUCH better to encourage a culture of 'sustainable travel' (another dubious concept) - and encourage things like dancing instead of PE.

    I was talking to someone yesterday about a fairly new Edinburgh school where the bike racks are the old fashion wheel twisters not in a 'secure' cage.

    The Council wants to improve things, but because it's a PFI school, it needs a "letter of comfort" to the owner to excuse them from all sorts of responsibility for maintenance etc.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. Kim
    Member

    1) are fit(ter) children more likely to be generally fit in adult life?

    2) are children walking/cycling to school more likely to do similar exercise as adults?

    Yes and Yes. This is why it is such an important issue.

    With regard to getting girls cycling, then showing them a copy of Beauty and the Bike might help inspire them, as might having decent cycle facilities. Trouble is this all starts to get a wee bit circular after a while.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. Min
    Member

    Yeah but it is dangerous on the roads with all the cars so they should all be driven to school instead..

    *Min cycles away laughing*

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    "Yes and Yes. This is why it is such an important issue."

    I'm sure.

    Can you point me to any 'research'

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "Yeah but it is dangerous on the roads with all the cars so they should all be driven to school instead.."

    Now how many times have I heard that....

    SOME school have significant amounts of yellow lines/no parking/loading around them and enforcement/peer pressure to make it work.

    Don't think there are any in Edinburgh....

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    @Kim

    "With regard to getting girls cycling, then showing them a copy of Beauty and the Bike might help inspire them, as might having decent cycle facilities."

    Yeah there is a Sustrans project targeting two school clusters in Edinburgh (I'm peripherally involved)

    (You started the Beauty and the Bike thread here - a few other good vids too.)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. Kim
    Member

    I had forgotten that thread.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. Min
    Member

    If you hang around near the Rudolph Steiner School (not that I hang around schools you understand) there are loads of parents who cycle their flocks of children to school. I only know one person who went there but she still cycles though she has a car too so although I only have a sample of one I am sure it really sets a good example to kids.

    I used to have to cycle through a wood by myself at the age of 4-5 to get to a bus stop to get the bus that took me to school. Never did me any harm etc. Mind you, no traffic in the wood though I am sure it was full of bears.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  13. SRD
    Moderator

    I have always preferred 'sports' that were also ways to get somewhere - so cycled places (never competed/trained) but competed/taught cross-country skiing, kayaking, and orienteering. I just never saw the point to games taught in school. People tend to assume that the point is that they are also not team sports, which could be true, but another point is that sports like cycling can be done with friends, family etc as people get older -- and as you have families. I suppose some families do play football, but it just seems to me that there is something more sustainable and family oriented about being able to go out for a cycle or ski together, or take a canoe out for a picnic. And, I like being able to discover new places by ski/canoe/bike. Don't know if any of that appeals to others, but it seems worth trying to think about what the differences are, and why they could be made more appealing. I just like being able to GO somewhere, and not run around in circles.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  14. Min
    Member

    Oh I love competitive sports although I also love just moving about because I can. I have no problem with this being taught at schools but there is too much emphasis on this in society in general. How often have you heard in the media "You don't have to join a gym to keep fit!!!" like it is some sort of amazing revelation. Makes me grind my teeth that. People are obsessed with joining gyms. I go to a gym but that is because I do weights and gym stuff to compete. If I didn't I wouldn't go near the horrible place, what would be the point?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  15. SRD
    Moderator

    There's no reason to think that non-team sports are not competitive! I competed at several levels in all my sports - and have lots of medals to prove it - never got to an international competition unfortunately. Just that they have the added side benefit of useful skills if you want to get out on the land, camping or just a family day out.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  16. Kim
    Member

    "Let's have a minute's silence for all those people who are sitting in traffic on the way to the gym to ride a stationary bicycle" - US Congressman Earl Blumenauer

    I think in this country cycling suffers because it is to much thought of purely as a sporting or leisure activity, rather that as a practical means of transport. It is all of these things!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    I've never been a great fan of (participating in) team sports - mainly 'cos I was never that good (and the freezing changing rooms etc.)

    There was a brief period of playing volleyball for fun but the deputy head decided we weren't allowed to 'just do it' in normal/school clothes...

    @SRD "I like being able to discover new places by ski/canoe/bike. Don't know if any of that appeals to others, but it seems worth trying to think about what the differences are, and why they could be made more appealing. I just like being able to GO somewhere, and not run around in circles."

    YEP

    Kesgrave School is a 'poster school' for cycling. Apparently its school teams are quite good at 'normal' sports - even though the school doesn't have the greatest playing field facilities - must be something to do with general fitness...

    It's all about barriers - real or imaginary. Divisions between 'sport'/exercise/'active travel'.

    Competition is for 'winners' or 'elites'.

    Then there are issues about doing things out of school, not in 'controlled' environments like playing fields or sports halls and also out of school time.

    It doesn't help that City of Edinburgh Council has a historic view that 'how children get to school is the parent's responsibility'. Legally true but not 'helpful'. CEC has been unwilling to provide basic insurance cover for people organising Walking Buses even though "it wouldn't put the premium up at all."

    Cycling is now fairly 'cool' (there must be a more 2010 word) due to Mountain Biking , Chris Hoy, Danny MacAskill etc. (Role models like Shanaze Reade are less high profile - but the opening of the Saughton Skatepark shortly may boost BMXing in Edinburgh.)

    But that is 'sport' (and competitive and 'elite' in the case of Chris and Shanaze). Though all three are examples of what can be done with singleminded determination - it's not just skill, talent or luck.

    It used to be said (largely unkindly) that racing cyclists were people who drove their bikes to races. This is now more prevalent with Mountain Biking (and of course Sustrans is routinely criticised for increasing road traffic because 'families drive to remote off-road paths for a short bit of cycling').

    Glentress is used as a goal/reward with various Edinburgh cycling projects.

    It's possible to cycle from central Edinburgh to the Pentlands - mostly on off-road paths - in the time it takes to drive to the various Borders' MTB trails.

    Of course it's not either/or. There are good reasons for having the 7stanes - and going to them. But in the week when the Hillend Ski centre is 'under threat' (UPDATE there's now a 'save Hillend' FaceBook group) any prospects of a 'rational' look at improving/encouraging more use of existing 'resources' in the Edinburgh area seems as remote as ever. 'Simple' things like improving the path through Dreghorn Woods would be a start, but...

    Underlying all this is the fact that if walking/cycling to school was the norm, there would be fitter children (and a new generation of fitter adults) and the chance of even more successful athletes/sportspeople (at all levels - and not just in cycling).

    But of course this is all a bit too cross-departmental and far too difficult in a world where joined-up-thinking is a mantra not a reality.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  18. Min
    Member

    "There's no reason to think that non-team sports are not competitive!"

    SRD-Whoops sorry, I know. I just read your post then my brain went off at a tangent. ;-)

    chdot-Joined up thinking indeed. It's not really rocket science is it? But it may as well be.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    @wee folding bike

    "I was talking to some S3 girls about this on Friday afternoon. They really wouldn't think of cycling to school."

    This is not too surprising given the prevailing 'culture'.

    But it's not too much of a disaster. Generally at that sort of age getting to school is a social activity with small groups (usually single sex) hanging out and gossiping.

    In the UK it's more difficult to do this on a bike due to road conditions and the (partly related) fact that (particularly for young people) cycling is often associated with speed.

    My daughter hardly cycled at all at secondary school age (certainly not to school as it was less than a mile away). She and her friends walked miles to avoid bus fares. Now (in London) her bike is her main means of transport.

    Crucial she grew with adults who cycled. Many (most?) of today's parents with school age children don't. Of course the people reading this do - but 'we' are not 'normal'.....

    Posted 14 years ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    Looks like joined-up-thinking

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=328

    Posted 14 years ago #

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