The dangers of cars and transport are a function creep of motor engines and speed. A study in Sheffield showed the dramatic changes in distances children were allowed to walk - presumably because of the risks of vehicles on the road. Vehicles are also partly responsible for climate change so there is a case for a culture change of advertising and selling motor transport to aid the management of obesity?
The University of Sheffield : Decreasing experiences of home range, outdoor spaces, activities and companions: changes across three generations in Sheffield in north England. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94588/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Woolley, H.E. and Griffin, E. (2015) Decreasing experiences of home range, outdoor spaces, activities and companions: changes across three generations in Sheffield in north England. Children's Geographies, 13 (6). pp. 677-691. ISSN 1473-3285 https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2014.952186
Rationale and Methodology In June 2007 a national newspaper printed an article entitled How children lost the right to roam in four generations (Daily Mail, 2007). The newspaper article reported findings of research undertaken with four generations of one family on the eastern side of Sheffield, a city in the north of England. The article stated that when the great grandfather was 8, in 1926, he regularly walked six miles without adult supervision, to go fishing: his family could not afford a bike, his home was small and crowded and he spent much time outdoors.
The grandfather, aged 8 in 1950, was allowed to walk one mile to local woods and to school. In 1979, when the mother was 8, she rode her bicycle around the housing estate where she lived, played with friends in the park and walked both to school and the swimming pool. Her son, the fourth generation, does not spend much time outside in the garden or quiet street that they live in and is driven to school in the car, so that his mother could get to work on time. Embedded in this newspaper article was a map indicating the home range of the individuals in the four generations of this family.
Two things are striking. First, that the recent child has no real experience of home range and outdoor activities. Second, clearly evident from the map, is that the greatest change in home range was not recent but was between the great grandfather and the grandfather: from 6 miles down to 1 mile, in about 1950. As far as I have been able to determine the information in this newspaper article was never published in any other form.
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HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data
Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com
