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Healthy transport
Looking for some healthy activities for Term 4? Explore how cycling and other sustainable transport options can improve your health and create healthy environments.
sustainable transport options
There are lots of good reasons to get out of your car and get on your bike:
- Cycling reduces the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and some cancer. It also gets the endorphins flowing and helps beat stress.
- Cycling 10km each way to work (instead of driving) saves 1.3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Cycling 1km to the railway station (instead of driving) saves 0.2-0.3kg greenhouse gas emissions, other air pollutants and fuel costs.
You can join over 60,000 cyclists pedalling their way to healthier lifestyles on 17 October in the National Ride to Work Day. Anyone can register to participate in Ride to Work Day, as an individual or an organisation, to find out more visit the Ride to Work website. Of course, cycling isn't for everybody! There are many other sustainable ways of transporting yourself to work including walking, public transport, and car pooling.
Transport is a significant environmental issue in Australia. According to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, transport accounts for 14% of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions and Australia's transport emissions grew by 29.9% from 1990 to 2005. In addition, motor vehicle emissions (such as carbon monoxide , particulate matter, and benzene) are a major cause of air pollution in urban areas of Australia.
You can explore sustainable transport options in your class and your school through a range of different activities such as transport surveys, researching your mobility footprint, creating a mobility plan or even working with your local council to improve pedestrian and bike access around your school. To find out more, have a look at the project example provided by the NSW Local Government and Shire's Association Local Governments Working with Schools program
Another useful place to look for sustainable transport ideas is the Commonwealth Government's Travel Smart program and Bicycle Victoria's Ride2School program including the pedal pod. These programs provide teacher resources designed for primary teachers though some of the ideas are easily adapted for older students.
The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change's Airwatch program, provides teaching resources for Science and Geography (Stages 4 and 5). The Airwatch manual is divided into a number of modules covering many of the factors which affect air quality such as the movement of air masses, localised physical barriers, and how our individual behaviour and practices can affect air quality on a personal, local and global scale. The section on 'Your local environment' is especially relevant to transport issues.
