• Traffic volume is the most important environmental risk factor for child pedestrian injury.
• Death rates for child pedestrians and cyclists have fallen over the past decade, but this is because children walk and cycle much less than they used to
• Reduced walking and cycling is a major contributor to the decline in children's physical activity, which leads to the increasing levels of childhood obesity.
• Children in social class 5 (poorer) are at five times greater risk than those in social class 1.

Commenting on Robert's letter, Ron Bailey, Friends of the Earth's organiser for the Road Traffic Reduction Bill campaign, said : "We need national traffic reduction targets, not just cleaner cars".

Nine leading children's and health organisations - ranging from Barnardos to the British Medical Association - and the National Trust have given their support to the Bill.

Researchers at Napier University, Edinburgh, have discovered a link between road accidents and social deprivation. In the poorest areas surveyed, 70 percent of households have no car. As a result, poor people make more journeys as pedestrians where they risk being knocked down by cars. Children from poor areas are les likely to be driven to school and therefore have to walk there. They are also less likely to have gardens to play in and will play in the wtreet. Both factors contribute to the danger these children face from urban traffic.

Make no mistake about the profile this race now has on the international circuit. On a cycling holiday in Cuba earlier this year I met a seasoned former bike racer, now in his fifties. Reflecting that, owing to a lack of competitive spirit, my nature wasn't suited to cycle racing, I mentioned that the only race I had ever taken part in was a beigel race. "Ah", he said, "that was you lot, was it?".

This year's event went fantastically (see Rowena's report below). This is a joint venture between Wheelers and the Local Agenda 21 team. I provide the beigels and the bikes (aka you lot), and LA21's Kay Wagland looks for the challengers - this year Cllr Taylor, a London cabbie, a pedestrian and dog, a pony and cart, a minibus, and pedestrians using public transport. I needed 20 cyclists for two reasons: the LCC are calling for a London-wide 20mph speed limit - except in certain specified areas - and it is twenty years since the founding of the LCC from disparate borough groups like Wheelers. Thanks should go to the Borough Highways Authority for supporting the event, and to the local police whose fantastic co-operation meant we had a great car-free start. Thanks to all of you who turned out to race - particularly to our MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, whose wife telephoned me 40 minutes before the start to say he had just got a puncture on the Barking Road but would try and make it anyway. As it was, the Hon. member for Poplar and Canning Town got to the start on time and took part on a borrowed bike! Jim'll Fix It, as they say.

The mission: take loads of beigels to Bow by various kinds of transport and see who gets there first. Several assorted bikes, a tandem, a rickshaw, a pony and trap, a taxi, a car, two pedestrians (one human, one canine), two bus and tube travellers, and a Community minibus raced from the Beigel Bakery, Brick Lane, E2 to arrive at the Pie in the Sky cafe, Bruce Road, E3 in times varying from ten minutes 20 seconds (super-streaking cycle) to 48 minutes (briskly-paced feet and paws). For some daft reason I thought it would be quicker to take the scenic route via Tower Hamlets Cemetary and the brutalist expanses of Hollyhead Estate, thereby avoiding the Saturday tangle of Bow Road traffic. Not so. By the time I reached the cafe at least four racers had their pedalling toes under the table and were refuelling with hot drinks and lashings of home-made fruit cake. Charging along at breakneck speed with a force 3 tail wind, the sun shining on her gleaming flanks, nostrils flared - no, not me, but Arby the plucky pony who belted up with a jingle of bells, bright ribbons and three passengers. We munched our transported beigels while the winner, Oscar Franklyn - who had sped from Brick Lane like a blue-and-white-striped comet - was draped with the victor's wreath, made of beigels of course.

It was a great way to spend Saturday morning, and encouraging to see people concerned about traffic issues joining in with such good humour and tons of energy. Many thanks to Gary for organising the event, corralling the Wheelers, and preparing the beigels (very tasty), and to Kay Wagland for her contribution and scrupulous time-logging.