Reducing how much we drive -- child miles traveled?

Among the many solutions for dealing with the environmental impacts of transportation, driving fewer miles is by far the least controversial. After all, who doesn't want to spend less time in the car?  Planners and politicians alike find the safest bet for greening transportation lies in reducing our vehicle miles traveled (VMTs),

Improve public transportation, they say. Develop housing near mass transport nodes. Form carpools at the office. These are all effective and viable measures to address the average American business commute, and we should indeed do all of these things. But what if our business commute isn't necessarily where we have the most influence? What if it's our kids' activities driving us to drive more -- our child miles traveled (CMTs)?

According to the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, the average vehicle travels 3,956 miles for family and personal business. In 1969, that average was 1,270 miles. We've tripled our family business mileage, but VMTs for business commuting only increased 36 percent during the same period. Looks like our family miles are to blame.

We want to give our children every opportunity for growth and exploration of their talents, and approximately 80 percent of American children participate in organized extracurricular activities outside of school. Most of these activities are not part of an after-school program but require travel to a separate location for sports, dance, music, and the required competitions and performances that accompany these commitments. That translates into a lot of mileage traveled and time in the car, or too often the 8-seater SUV -- with only 2 or 3 seats occupied.

Aside from keeping our children in a shoebox, there are a number of valid solutions to this dilemma:

• Urban planning -- Get these kids out on their bikes. Provide safe bike routes connecting schools, parks, libraries, and small commercial centers likely to host dance classes and other activities for children.


• Make this effort a community-based contest or pledge -- Children can get involved by calculating fuel savings and reducing their carbon footprints.


• School district policies and public/private partnerships -- Lease space within schools to extracurricular activity providers, and offer ongoing classes and activities immediately after school. Bring back school-affiliated K-8 sports teams, or partner with community sports leagues to use school fields for practice after classes let out.


• Self-assessment -- Read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, and talk to your kids about how much they actually get out of their extracurricular activities. How much time do they really have in their schedules for creative play?


• Public transit -- Provide free passes for kids, and create programs to teach them how to use the bus or train systems safely and effectively. This can embed lifetime habits for using mass transit and create a sustainable future for these services.


• Carpooling -- Put those 8-seaters to good use, and go out of your way to organize shared rides on the first day of practice or class. Maximize the benefit by asking each driver to both drop off and pick up, so that by sticking around and watching, they can spend time with their child and avoid round-trips by separate drivers.


• Economic development and arts funding -- Municipalities can provide incentives for arts organizations that locate near public schools or provide supervised walking or shuttles from school to extracurricular activities. Music, dance, and visual arts are big players in the distances we spend transporting our children.

The answers will not be found in a single solution, but certainly the challenge of reducing child miles traveled can be part of urban planning and school board conversations as easily as it can be part of the family dinner conversation.

Elaine Gallagher Adams is a senior consultant on Rocky Mountain Institute's Built Environment Team, and Hiroko Kawai is a principal on Rocky Mountain Institute's Mobility and Vehicle Efficiency Team. Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, entrepreneurial nonprofit think-and-do tank. We drive the efficient and restorative use of resources. Sign up for RMI e-lerts here.