THE HUMANIST: Spring 1998

The mobility and independence enjoyed by children in the small Guatemalan village where I lived as a human rights observer in 1997 left a memorable impression. The children in the road-less, car-less village of Cimiento de la Esperanza participated in almost all aspects of community life. This life-style stands in stark contrast to that of children in our cities who learn that getting around very much depends on the willingness of parents to drive them to their destination.

Increasing suburbanization, the speed of cars and air pollution are all factors that make children and cars a bad mix. Cars are marketed on the basis of the independence and speed they offer. Ironically, the more we buy into that idea of independence the more dependent it makes our children; the greater the speed of motor traffic the more we jeopardize the safety of our children; the more we use cars the greater the prejudice to the health of children. No wonder then that children cannot wait to reach the legal driving age. Of course the fear of harm to our children from strangers on the street is also an important element restricting children. This harm is, however, exacerbated by the anonymity of people on our streets and the smaller number of people there.

Jackie Kennedy works for an organization called Greenest City. She spoke at a recent conference in Toronto called “Moving the Economy.” Kennedy oversees a program called “Safe Routes to School” which focuses on issues such as traffic-calming and pollution reduction. She helps coordinate the “walking school bus” which provides adult supervision to kids walking to school. It is an international green initiative which has a clear handle on the benefits of letting kids walk to school instead of vegging out in the back seat of the car. It also saves money for cash-strapped school boards by reducing busing costs.

Kennedy says “children have become the highest risk group for respiratory problems.” An important cause is air pollution. A major part of the problem is the car. The irony is that it is common to see cars stopping in front of schools while engines are left idling causing air pollution — the very hazard that induces some people to drive their kids to school. Kennedy says that an initiative such as the walking school bus promotes promotes physical activity in kids and can also help preempt many long term problems such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. Allowing children to walk to school also improves motor and social skills and increases intellectual capacity while improving physical fitness, says Kennedy.
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David Engwicht from Brisbane, Australia is the renowned author of Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns. He was another keynote speaker at the Conference. He says increasing traffic in the context of school children is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. Parents driver their kids to school because of the perceived danger on the streets from traffic and crime. The result is that there is more traffic and fewer people walking along the street. Fewer people on the street increase ‘stranger-danger’ and induces more people to driver their kids to school. With more traffic, roads need to be widened, more parking provided etc. Traffic increases yet again.

Engwicht says the “way to break the cycle … is through social and cultural change instead of through hardware change.” He notes that the key is not the dissemination of information. “Behaviour is not governed by information or logic.” We already know that vehicular traffic is a hazard to our kids and that we are causing too much air pollution but we nonetheless continue driving. He says that what we need to do is trigger a cultural revolution; but one that happens in an existing context with a new, covertly introduced, cultural experience. He says that by focusing on traffic-calming (i.e. speed bumps, pinch points) “the message is that other people cause traffic problems” when we should “encourage people to confront the dilemma in their values.”

The solution is in making the street more attractive to the pedestrian instead of emphasizing the damage being done by the car. “The emphasis is on reclaiming the street, not calming the traffic,” according to Engwicht. He has many inexpensive ideas that he suggests the community itself be in charge of implementing on their residential streets. The role of government is only to provide guidelines. His examples include painting murals on roadways, placing benches along the street, creating islands in the centre of the street made to look like a living room, and a community notice board. The idea is to “change the feeling and environment of the street.” In the end the streets are ‘reclaimed’ by the community. Streets become places where people meet and community-building goes on. People who pass through in their cars easily learn that these streets are a part of the neighbourhoods where people live and meet and where our children grow up.