Goal is to get students walking, bicycling. State using $4 million to help kids reach school safely, under own steam

September 6, 2007

That such an educational program is deemed necessary suggests how much society has changed from a time in the late 1960s when more than half of the students in the country walked or biked to school. That percentage has dropped to 15%, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

The decline in walking or biking to school has been cited as a cause behind a different trend: the growing number of children who are overweight or obese. A national study found that 18.8% of children ages 6 to 11 were obese in 2003'-04, roughly triple the percentage found two decades earlier.

By Tom Held

Full Story: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=655505

By TOM HELD theld@journalsentinel.com

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