Links between children's independent mobility, active transport, physical activity and obesity

Internationally, the past 40 years have seen a number of inter-related trends in developed Anglo-American countries, including radically declining levels ofchildren’s independent mobility (CIM), increased parental use of cars to transport children to school and play, decreasing everyday physical activity of both children and adults, and increasing child obesity rates. The level of children’s everyday physical activity is influenced by gender, household income, parental and societal fears, the physical design of neighborhoods, and broader social policies that discourage“ risk ”. Several promising practices can have an impact on improving children’s active transport, everyday physical activity and autonomy: traffic calming, lowering speed limits, improving access to destinations, and other physical environment modifications social planning and marketing interventions,including school travel plans and walking schoolbus schemes rights-based participatory planning approaches such as Child Friendly Cities projects.