TY - JOUR T1 - There is too much traffic for Alex to walk to school, so we drive: a call to action based on a 42-year trend JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2017-098933 SP - bjsports-2017-098933 AU - Christopher William Oliver AU - Paul Kelly AU - Graham Baker AU - Dave du Feu AU - Adrian Davis Y1 - 2018/03/10 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/09/bjsports-2017-098933.abstract N2 - In 1971, a study of children’s travel to and from school focused on five English primary schools.1 The schools’ locations ranged from inner-urban London to a village primary school (ages 4–11). In 1990, the Policy Studies Institute published a follow-up study with the same schools and added linked secondary schools (ages 11–16).2 The results were alarming. Independent active travel was declining steeply—on average, a child in 1990 had to be 2.5 years older than in 1971 to be allowed permissions such as to cross local roads and to travel the school journey without an adult.1 2 A further study in 2013 reported further significant shrinkage.3 We are concerned about the effects this will have for Alex and all young people (figure 1).Figure 1 The school journey.The drivers of children being kept on a leash are multifaceted, but implicated above all is the dominance of the ‘windscreen perspective’—politicians and highway engineers have a driver’s perspective. Travel by car, and provision for that, becomes the default choice. Public … ER -