Pupils' parents 'addicted to cars'

North Shore parents are under fire for inflicting car dependency on their children.

Surveys of children at 17 primary schools have shown an "unhealthy addiction to cars", says the North Shore City Council.

The council found almost three-quarters of about 6500 children surveyed lived within a kilometre of school, yet more than half were driven there and back each day. Although 73 per cent lived so close to school, 53 per cent were given regular lifts.

One school, not named by the council, has 90 per cent of its pupils living within a kilometre of its gates but 63 per cent are driven there.

The youngsters are not to blame for being in thrall to the car, says city transport operations manager Tom Morton, whose staff are helping parents there and at other schools to mend their ways with non-motorised travel plans.

"Our analysis clearly shows it is parental attitudes and habits, not travel distances, which are preventing children from walking and cycling to school," he said yesterday.

"The children are telling us over and over again in our surveys that they would prefer to cycle and walk to school, yet their parents are taking that choice away from them."

Mr Morton said this was odd, as most parents would probably have walked or cycled to school in their day, a healthier and more social way to travel.

"Yet today they aren't giving the same experience to their children."

This was depriving youngsters of daily exercise to combat obesity, as well as denying them vital road safety skills.

He acknowledged safety was a critical parental concern, but said the council was combating this by helping to establish "walking buses".