We live in a city where parents twist themselves into pretzels trying to get their children into soccer, swimming or other recreational programs, kick up a fuss when sports services are cut back, and pay through the nose for summer camps.

Toronto is obsessed with enrolling its kids in physical activities.

And yet when it comes to the simplest form of exercise — a brisk walk to school — a new study shows that far too many parents toss all that concern for healthy living right out the window.

This week a report from Metrolinx, the Greater Toronto Area public transit agency, found the number of students being driven to school in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area has more than doubled in the last few decades. Nearly 31 per cent of children 11 to 13 years old were being driven to school in 2011, up from 12 per cent in 1986. The number who walked declined from 56 per cent to 39 per cent. The results were similarly discouraging for older high school students. It doesn’t make sense.

Walking to school is great physical exercise. It wakes kids up. It helps them concentrate once they’re in class. They build their social skills along the route, become street smart, gain self-confidence and a sense of responsibility, and become more independent. It’s called community building.

“Beyond the physical activity, there’s a host of benefits such as discovering the world, being aware of traffic and interacting with the environment,” says Guy Faulkner, a professor of health and exercise psychology at the University of Toronto. He’s right.

And with youth obesity levels on the rise, the downside of being chauffeured to school should be obvious even to the most cautious parent.

So why do so many drive their kids to school?

Ron Buliung, a UofT geography professor who researched the study, believes the main reason is convenience. It’s just easier to drop kids off on the way to work than to get them up earlier and out the door. And that nagging for a lift can be hard to resist. But that’s no reason for a parent to cave.

And what about safety? That concern tops the list for many parents. But it can be overstated.

Toronto is a famously safe city. Indeed, in all of Ontario, with its more than 13 million people, nine children were abducted by strangers in 2013 according to Canadian Police Information Centre data. Police are especially vigilant when schools are opening and closing, and crossing guards are everywhere. So are the many parents and older students who walk smaller children to and from school. The streets are thick with safety.

Traffic concerns? It’s an issue. Every child needs to be drilled, again and again, on basic street safety. But children are safer on foot than in cars. More children are killed in car crashes, than as pedestrians. The safest route to school isn’t necessarily in the back seat of a car, or getting in and out of cars in high-traffic drop-off points near schools, with other drivers whizzing by.

To their credit, Toronto’s schools are beginning to stress the benefits of walking to class.

At St. Raphael Catholic School, gym teacher Christian Fazzini has student volunteers hand out pencils or stickers as little rewards to students who arrive on foot. And 300 of the school’s older kids will soon get pedometers. He also uses the school’s public address system to have students talk up the benefits of hoofing it to class.

Other schools are holding bike rodeos to generate a sense of fun and curb the number of kids arriving by car.

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More schools should follow these positive examples. And more parents should put down their foot, and not on the gas pedal.

Kids should be encouraged to walk, bicycle or take public transit to school, along with their friends and classmates. It’s fun, healthy and academically productive. Let’s ring the bell on laziness.

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