CHILDREN returning to school today after the Christmas break should be walking or cycling rather than being chauffeured by their parents, according to a senior Dublin Corporation traffic engineer.
Mr Kevin Hallahan was commenting on claims in Britain that parents who drive their children to school every day may be unwittingly contributing to an asthma epidemic as well as swelling peak time traffic levels in the city.
"We haven't really studied the problem, but anyone would agree that peak traffic moves more freely when the schools are closed. More and more, it seems that parents are afraid to let their children walk to school because of scare stories about kids being molested."
According to Mr Hallahan, acting divisional traffic engineer with Dublin Corporation, it would take a major "origin and destination" survey to establish the extent of the phenomenon. However, no provision was made for this in the Dublin Transportation Initiative.
He suggested that there might be a case for staggering school hours. "But in winter a later start would mean that children would be coming home in the dark. Also, with a lot more women working these days, it may not suit them either. There's no easy answer."
According to this month's BBC Wildlife magazine, fumes from congested early morning traffic have become a key component in the rising tide of asthma outbreaks among young children and the elderly", and the school run is one of the major contributors.
"Many school run cars are relatively old and poorly maintained. The journeys are mostly under 15 minutes, so engines are cold, fuel is burned inefficiently, fumes are excessive and even where catalytic converters are fitted they are ineffective.
"On hot summer afternoons and cold winter mornings, drivers use the blower to cool or warm the occupants and, in the process, fumes are sucked in from the car in front. As a result, pollution levels are even greater within the vehicle than outside," it says.
Although 90 per cent of children in Britain walked to school 40 years ago, 90 per cent now travel by car. As a result, quite apart from being more at risk from asthma, children were increasingly unfit and their road safety skills were minimal.
"Most primary schoolchildren in urban and suburban catchments live within a mile of school and the journey by car, in the self generated rush hour, will often take longer than walking," it says.
"Those who suffer most directly are parents and children," says the author, Mr Chris Baines. "But as they create much of the problem themselves, they must take the lead in any sustainable solution and join forces with their teachers to make a powerful start right now."
He advises parents to get up 10 minutes earlier and walk their kids to school, to arrange a rota with other parents, to create a ring of confidence around the school by extending the "lollipop patrol", to run kerbside checks on pollution and to mark out safe bicycle routes.
