Today is International Walk to School Day, and parents have been encouraged all this week to allow their children walk to school instead of driving them - or walk with them, of course, if the distance allows.
However, the event highlights an international parental dilemma; they increasingly drive their children to school rather that let them walk, because of fears that they might be knocked down or because they're frightened that their youngster might be accosted on the way.
But sociologist Prof James Wickham of Trinity College Dublin says driving children to school can be counter-productive on both counts.
"By driving children to school you are putting more traffic on the roads, and thus increasing the liklihood of them being hit by a car near the school," he says.
"Also, a whole generation of children are being 'deskilled' in roadcraft . . . the number who know how to ride a bicycle is even going down these days."
As for being accosted by strangers, the fact that there are fewer children on the sidewalks because they are being driven actually increases the exposure to such danger to those who do walk to school, because they don't have as many of their friends with them.
"It's something of a vicious circle," says Wickham. "In Britain, for instance, the extent to which people drive their children to school has gone up far faster than have the distances between home and school."
Last year nearly 3 million walkers from 28 countries walked to school together on International Walk to School Day, which in Ireland is being coordinated by the National Safety Council.
The global organisation behind it has a website at www.iwalktoschool.org