http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s1079161.htm

Topic: Don't Drive the Kids to School

Program Transcript
As part of the NSW Department of Education's mandatory Environmental
Education policy my son's local primary school recently did an
environmental audit. This was a jolly day where everyone put on rubber
gloves and went through the bins. They estimated the volume of waste the
school generates, collected rubbish and worked out ways to save the
world.

Strangely though, transport options weren't one of the things looked at
either at this school or in the Department's policy document. They never
asked how staff and students got to school that day or looked at the
impact of their transport choices, so to do my bit I thought I'd put
together some figures. None of this was rocket science or top secret -
everything was available with a few phonecalls and emails.

Think about how the following numbers apply to your own local school.

To start with, let's imagine you are a parent. You drive a five-year-old
hatchback and live one and a half kilometres from the local school.

If the kids are driven to school both mornings and afternoons, that
means 6km of travel each day for 202 school days, so in a year you'll
drive 1212 km between home and school. The fuel consumption for
hatchbacks is generally around 8 litres per 100km, so in twelve months
you'll use about 97 litres of petrol and at 90 cents a litre this will
cost about $87.

The cost of depreciation, maintenance, insurance etc. means that as well
as fuel it will cost about $72 to park the car in your driveway, so if
you didn't have the car you would have that money to spend on train and
bus tickets and taxi trips every week. For the money you spent buying a
car you could fit out everyone in the family with a good bike and helmet
and still have plenty left over.

That's the financial cost. What about the environment? Each litre of
petrol consumed releases 2.257kgs of CO2, so over twelve months you'll
generate about 219kg of greenhouse gases just doing the school run.
Catalytic converters don't work for the first five kilometres of a trip
so at the same time you will be doing maximum damage to the atmosphere,
and short trips where the car starts cold use up to 40% more fuel and
wear out your engine quicker.

All of these environmental and financial costs are bigger if you drive a
station wagon, people mover or 4WD.

Based on these figures, the local school could save over a tonne in
greenhouse gasses next year by getting the children from five families
walking or cycling to school every day, or eight families walking three
days a week. It's estimated that 15% of Australian children are
overweight and 5% are obese, caused by diet and a sedentary lifestyle,
so those kids will also be getting the benefit of regular aerobic
exercise. If you want to shed a few kilos for next Summer why not join
them?

Considering that 760 000 children attend NSW public schools and
Environmental Education is a mandatory policy, there is the potential
for enormous savings with a simple change in behaviour.

Re-thinking the school run and other short trips has big implications
for the rest of us as well. Road transport already contributes 14.3% of
our greenhouse emissions and the numbers are all going the wrong way.
- emissions from transport are the fastest-growing sector of our
greenhouse output
- Between 1990 and 2000 emissions from cars increased by 22.2%, and as
we want bigger, more powerful cars fuel efficiency has decreased by 10%.

- When we buy a car, its environmental impact is the least important
factor in our choice of vehicle.
- Our transport-related emissions per capita are double those of someone
living in Europe and 4 1/2 times the world average.

Cars can be really handy things, and by all means use the car when it's
pouring with rain or you have to transport that enormous papier mache
dinosaur for today's science lesson. However, on the other days do
something better for your kids and dust off the bikes. When you add up
the numbers, it does make a difference.

Guests on this program:
Belinda Keir
Sydney writer

Presenter: Sandy McCutcheon
Producer: Keri Phillips

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