There is no doubt that action is needed to try to curb the 'School Run'.

Parents taking their children to school are said to account for a fifth of motorists on the road during the rush hour.

Everyone knows that children should take more exercise. Too many are already obese. But parents seem reluctant to encourage them to cycle, walk or take the bus to school.

In Oxfordshire, 'walking buses', with children walking crocodile-style to and from classes, are working well in some areas, but elsewhere, pleas to give up the car have fallen on deaf ears.

A Commons committee is probably right when it says that pupils will have to be offered incentives or bribes, such as discounts on local activities, before progress is made.

But one Government idea that is unlikely to help is the possible scrapping of free travel for pupils living more than three miles from school.

School buses may be expensive and drain on the taxpayer, but if parents have to pay, the danger is that even more will choose to drive their children to school, making congestion worse.

The aim should be to make the school bus a more attractive form of transport.