Making Children Count!

"We manage what we measure", says Celia Wade-Brown, "so we must count whether children are walking to school just as we count commuters trips."

This week's Feet First Walk to School Day highlighted that many Councils don't know whether numbers walking to school are declining or not. Anecdotal evidence is a poor policy basis so all metropolitan areas need to measure this important indicator at a regional and district level.

During Wednesday's debate on the Wellington City Council's draft Annual Plan, Cr Celia Wade-Brown succeeded in getting a commitment to a new annual measure. The Council unanimously accepted her amendment "add an annual performance measure of the percentage of primary school children walking to school."

Around the country there are programmes like Walking School buses and Walking Wednesdays. These usually need some engineering work by Councils to improve the safety and walkability of suburban streets designed when the car was seen as the priority mode of travel. "Now more and more people recognise that walking is the healthiest way to get to school for primary school children." says Ms Wade-Brown, who is also President of Living Streets Aotearoa.

Cr Celia Wade-Brown

ENDS

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