A family participating in National Bike to School Day. Photo credit: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
As if there weren’t enough economic, social, environmental, safety, or physical health benefits of walking and cycling, one new study is showing yet another reason to embrace active transportation, especially among children– better concentration ability.
The Atlantic Cities summarized the findings of this new study, which comes to us from Denmark – perhaps no surprise since the country is home to Copenhagen, one of the great cycling cities in the world:
The survey looked at nearly 20,000 Danish kids between the ages of 5 and 19. It found that kids who cycled or walked to school, rather than traveling by car or public transportation, performed measurably better on tasks demanding concentration, such as solving puzzles, and that the effects lasted for up to four hours after they got to school.
Niels Egelund, co-author of the study, notes that among the findings was that “the exercise one uses to transport oneself to school is reflected in the level of concentration one has circa four hours later,” which is much longer than most people would expect. In fact, the physical exercise children had walking or cycling to school was shown to have a greater impact than eating breakfast or lunch– imagine that!
To read more about the findings of this study, head over to The Atlantic Cities
