© Association for European Transport 2002 CHILDREN'S CAR USE: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY Roger L Mackett, Lindsey Lucas, James Paskins and Jill Turbin Centre for Transport Studies, University College London 1. INTRODUCTION Car use is growing rapidly. Children use the car less than the rest of the population, on average, but their use of it is growing at a similar rate. The implications of this growth are being explored in a project being carried out in the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London (UCL). One strand of the work involves surveys of school children and their parents, plus anthropometric measurements of the children’s bodies. The preliminary results from these surveys provide the basis of a number of issues that are considered in this paper. It should be stressed that this is an exploratory analysis to identify issues for further investigation in later stages of the project. 2. THE GROWTH IN CHILDREN’S CAR USE IN GREAT BRITAIN Table 1 shows how the percentage of trips and distance travelled by car in Britain has increased both for the total population and for children using figures from the National Travel Survey (NTS). It can be seen that in 1964, 32% of all trips were by car. By 1985/86, this had increased to 50%, and by 1997/99, this had increased further to 65%, implying that almost two-thirds of trips are by car. Children make fewer trips by car than the whole population, but it is clear that they are following the same trend: between 1964 and the present, car use by children increased from fewer than 20% of trips to almost half. When the distance travelled is considered, the dominance of the car is even clearer. Back in 1964, just under half the total distance travelled by the whole population was by car; by 1997/99 it was over three-quarters. Children have followed the same upward trend, with 70% of their current travel by car. Table 1 Percentage of trips and distance travelled by car Trips Distance 1964 1985/86 1997/99 1964 1985/86 1997/99 All 32 50 65 46 71 78 Children 19 31 47 37 64 70 Source: National Travel Survey, 1964, and special tabulations from the National Travel Survey for 1985/86 and 1997/99. Note: The data for 1964 are for stages, but 93% of trips were single stage; For 1964 children are aged 3-15; for 1985/86 and 1997/99 they are aged 5-16. The focus of the research discussed in this paper is school children under the age of 13. Table 2 shows the national picture in terms of the average number