The childhood obesity epidemic has persisted for over three decades, which has presented serious social, economic and health consequences worldwide. For researchers and policy makers alike, cycling has been a promising focus over recent years for developing long-term physically active lifestyles in urban environments, in addition to contributing to the global quest to combat climate change. Promoting cycling thus presents a win-win situation not just for individuals' well-being, but for multiple involved sectors such as public health, transport ministry and environmental agencies. For children, cycling promotes exercise engagement, active transport opportunities, motor skill development and social interaction. However, across European cities, there are considerable discrepancies in the uptake of cycling amongst children. To understand and subsequently promote children's cycling behavior, it is crucial that the complex social, physical and policy environment, and their interrelationships, are considered. Therefore, in this perspective article, we adopt the socio-ecological model to gain insight into how children's cycling behavior is shaped at the interpersonal, organizational and community level embedded within city policies, relevant to increase future cycling participation in children. Our perspective is based on a review of cycling policies of two European cities, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Newcastle (UK), where stark contrasts in children's cycling participation can be observed. Our findings show that cycling policies in Amsterdam have mainly contributed to comprehensive organizational level changes, for example, cycling infrastructure development within the city, whereby these initiatives have made significant progress at the community level where cycling has become part of the “Dutch culture”. Hence, cycling is a more common transportation mode among children in Amsterdam than in Newcastle. In Newcastle, policies primarily focus on organizational or community level changes, and progress has recently been accelerated in response to COVID-19. In addition to differences, we have also identified similar challenges in the two cities, such as the urgency to support uptake of cycling for children with low socio-economic background or challenges related to cultural differences. We also propose a “shared (cycle-)path” for policy makers and researchers as working together is crucial in producing multi-component interventions at a policy level that recognize individual, as well as interpersonal, community and organizational factors.
The Netherlands is known globally for its widespread use of bicycles and some call it a “cycling nation”. Indeed, many Dutch inhabitants own a bike and cycle frequently. Numbers show that 84% of the Dutch inhabitants from age 4 years and older own a bike. Those owners have an average of 1.3 bikes per person. This results in 18 million bikes in the Netherlands and 13.5 million bike owners.6 The Dutch use their bike as a means of transportation, but also for sports and exercise. Bike-use fits well in an active lifestyle and it is highly plausible that cycling is responsible for a large part of the daily physical activity in Dutch youth. It is estimated that Dutch people have on average a 6 months longer life expectancy attributable to bicycle use.7 It seems that the nation itself is well shaped to cycle: no large mountains, only a few small hills, and an extensive layout of cycle paths and routes in every city and village. In many urban areas separate cycle paths are very common. Our results show that many Dutch children use the bike as their way of transportation. It was demonstrated that active transportation is responsible for a large part of schoolrelated physical activity in Dutch youth.8 80% of 12-17 year-old children cycled three or more days to or from school/work.9 This resulted in an ‘A’ for the indicator active transportation (walking is included in the grade as well). Active transport is associated with increased total physical activity among youth.10,11 Also evidence is reported for an association between active transport and a healthier body composition and healthier level of cardiorespiratory fitness among youth. Although Dutch children accumulate a lot of daily physical activity through cycling, it is not enough to meet the current national physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. Even though cycling is an important component to the amount of daily physical activity, Dutch youth are not cycling to health
Active transport to school is associated with higher levels of physical activity in children. Promotion of active transport has therefore gained attention as a potential target to increase children’s physical activity levels. Recent studies have recognized that the distance between home and school is an important predictor for active travel among children. These studies did not yet use the promising global positioning system (GPS) methods to objectively assess active transport. This study aims to explore active transport to school in relation to the distance between home and school among a sample of Dutch elementary school children, using GPS. Seventy-nine children, aged 6-11 years, were recruited in six schools that were located in five cities in the Netherlands. All children were asked to wear a GPS receiver for one week. All measurements were conducted between December 2008 and April 2009. Based on GPS recordings, the distance of the trips between home and school were calculated. In addition, the mode of transport (i.e., walking, cycling, motorized transport) was determined using the average and maximum speed of the GPS tracks. Then, proportion of walking and cycling trips to school was determined in relation to the distance between home and school. Out of all school trips that were recorded (n = 812), 79.2% were classified as active transport. On average, active commuting trips were of a distance of 422 meters with an average speed of 5.2 km/hour. The proportion of walking trips declined significantly at increased school trip distance, whereas the proportion of cycling trips (β = 1.23, p < 0.01) and motorized transport (β = 3.61, p < 0.01) increased. Almost all GPS tracks less than 300 meters were actively commuted, while of the tracks above 900 meters, more than half was passively commuted. In the current research setting, active transport between home and school was the most frequently used mode of travel. Increasing distance seems to be associated with higher levels of passive transport. These results are relevant for those involved in decisions on where to site schools and residences, as it may affect healthy behavior among children. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-227 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanned/
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Using technology to improve the adolescents' journey to school by bike in province of Drenthe and Groningen.All unsafe area that children spotted on the map, are because the lack of traffic safety ( lack of visibility, high speed, etc). In general children do not have a positive perception of cycling to school, and their favourite mode of traveling to school is car. What technology based intervention can make adolescents’ cycling to and from school safer and more attractive for them? Also does it help to encourage those who live far from the school (>10 km) to cycle to and from school more often?
Welke rol kunnen ‘grassroots’ initiatieven spelen bij het tot stand brengen van de grondstoffentransitie? Idealiter voelen lokale gemeenschappen zich eigenaar van hun eigen materiaalkringloop en profiteren ze ervan door minder afval, betaalbare producten en zinvol werk. Stichting Stunt (sociale ondernemer in upcycling) experimenteert al enige jaren met hergebruiken van plastic afval en omwerken naar nieuwe producten die relatief gemakkelijk te maken zijn door mensen met een afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt. Om een prominentere rol te kunnen spelen in de grondstoffentransitie, moeten leerwerkplaatsen en andere sociale ondernemingen de productie opschalen (in volume en naar meer hoogwaardige producten). Het doel van dit project is om inzicht te verkrijgen in hoe de belemmeringen die zij daarbij ervaren verminderd kunnen worden. De belemmeringen zijn o.a.: geen toegang tot goedkopere, robuuste machines voor upcycling; het productieproces is niet zomaar beheersbaar voor mensen met afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt; er zijn geschikte productontwerpen nodig. Hieruit volgt de vraag om een productconfigurator te maken. Dit heeft drie voordelen: -in de configurator kan een klant zelf een product configureren; -het genereren van de werkinstructies kan van daaruit worden geautomatiseerd; -de configurator kan direct feedback geven over de voetafdruk van het product en bv. de benodigde hoeveelheid afval. Stichting Stunt, The Upcycle en lectoraat Smart Sustainable Manufacturing van de Haagse Hogeschool willen samen een pilot uitvoeren om de haalbaarheid van dit principe te testen voor producten uit platen van gerecycled kunststof, omdat een robuuste platenpersmachine relatief gemakkelijk te ontwikkelen en bedienen is. Met behulp van de nieuwe tools kan het upcycle bedrijf aan de slag met: marktonderzoek, productontwerp en procesverbetering. De nieuwe tools zijn ook bruikbaar voor educatie, wat in de toekomst weer een belangrijke rol kan spelen bij het uitbouwen van een lokale upcycle community. Het project draagt hiermee bij aan optimaal hergebruik in lokale kringlopen.
