ALT To that list of physical activities you could add: get them to cycle to school, or to see friends. The health benefits of regular cycling are vast, and have been proved in thousands of studies. Other research has routinely shown that children who live near safe bike lanes are more likely to be active. So what shall we do? Allow cyclists to use safe, direct routes on pedestrianised streets? Or shrug our shoulders and hope that the assorted 11-year-olds fare OK mixing it with the buses, lorries and cars - assuming they don't just give up cycling immediately? As a choice, it seems fairly easy. But it's one the UK keeps on getting wrong.