A pilot project in Fredericton is aiming to increase the number of students walking or biking to school.

Roughly 50 per cent of students walked to school as recently as the 1980s, but today that average of between 10 and 20 per cent.

Andrew Holloway, a spokesman for New Brunswick’s Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Coalition, says one of the biggest reasons kids don’t walk to school is the level of risk perceived by parents.

“When I was a kid, the sort of safe distance I’d be allowed from my parents’ house would range anywhere from a kilometer and a half to two kilometers,” he says. “That’s shrunk down from five to 900 metres. So the perceived amount of risk, and a lot come with technology and the amount of information parents are inundated with, has changed.”

Holloway says the pilot is pushing for ideas and solutions to come directly from each community. He says active transportation can take many forms and would be different at each school level.

“For middle schools, we’re looking at possibly having hubs for drop-off zones, so there's bigger groups of kids, so there's not that lone kid walking by themselves,” says Holloway.

“And for elementary schools, we’re looking at having living school buses where volunteers take six kids home, just like they’re a walking school bus.”

In a province with skyrocketing obesity rates, the program hopes to ease a growing strain on the health-care system.

New Brunswick already boasts a diabetes rate above the national average, with Type 2 Diabetes, historically seen only in adults, now developing in teens.             

“Creating healthy habits early on is so important,” says Holloway. “It's much harder to change your habits as we age. So, if we can get to the children and get them eating healthier and being more physically active, the relationship with Type 2 Diabetes is going to be there.”

Data from the pilot will be reviewed this fall and again a year from now.

The project will take place in four different Fredericton schools and other communities are already expressing interest in being involved.  

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell