Walking for Health

Ready for school, 9-year-old Eric Kvam sees a group of walkers approaching and skips toward the street to join them after his mother, Wendy, hugs him goodbye on a frosty fall morning in Columbia, Mo.

"Thank you!" Wendy shouts to Katie Obermarle, 21, who greets Eric as she leads a dozen children on a mile-long jaunt to Fairview Elementary School.

"Kids are naturally inclined to be physically active, so it's ironic that we've created a culture in which only about 10 to 15 percent of our children walk or bike to school, down from 50 percent a generation ago," says Ian Thomas, 49, executive director of Columbia's PedNet Coalition, which launched its walking school bus program in 2003 and supervises 500 children who walk to 11 schools.

"We've created a car culture that boxes children in, even though kids are very open to the idea of walking or biking to school," Thomas says. "Elementary school kids in particular just love it!"
Walking School Bus A community solution Play Video
Good medicine
From growing concerns about obesity and chronic illnesses to rising gasoline prices, the reasons to walk more and ride less are becoming too clear to ignore, says Dr. Bob Sallis, a family physician and sports medicine expert at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center in Fontana, Calif.

And getting started is as easy as putting one foot in front of the other, says Sallis, 52, who advises his patients to walk 30 minutes a day.

"The magic is in its simplicity. Exercise is the best medication there is, and physical activity as simple as walking can have a profound effect," says Sallis, citing significant improvements for patients struggling with diabetes, heart disease, asthma and depression.

LINK: How to Walk Your Way to Fitness

Walking to school is an ideal way to build physical activity into the daily routines of children, who should engage in 60 minutes of exercise at least four days a week, according to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. In addition, scientific studies show that physically active children perform better academically, and educators report that regular exercise can reduce behavioral problems.