The students are, in fact, warming up for Friday's annual Walk Safely to School Day.

A well-established local institution, the nationally supported event has the commendable aim of getting our youngsters out of their mums' urban assault vehicles and back on to the footpaths in a bid to battle a lack of fitness, childhood obesity and a host of other ills.

Speaking as someone who had to walk 10 kilometres, often through waist-deep snow while being pursued by pterodactyls, sabre-tooth tigers and raptors, just to get to the school bus, if I couldn't get the paddock basher started, I think this is a commendable idea.

Now in its 16th year, Walk Safely To School Day actually works on a several levels. In addition to beating the health and fitness drum, it is also used to highlight road safety and the risks of just stepping off the kerb into flow of traffic, with handy information packs on what and what not to do.

Heading the list of tips in that situation is "hold a grown-up's hand when you cross the road".

As a regular road user who has become almost immune to the devil-may-care approach adopted to crossing Northbourne Avenue in Civic by many pedestrians, my only suggestion would be to make this mandatory for adults as well.

There also seem to be quite a few people – many of whom wear suits and are probably concerned about public housing invading the northern suburbs – in need of a refresher on such helpful tips as "wait till the bus has gone, then use a safe place to cross the road".

And, if my own experience is anything by which to judge, most of us are still looking for that one special grown-up to cling to and get some advice from on the meaning of life and how to reach the other side.

The flip side of all of this, of course, is that there will be a much larger number of primary school-age kids walking to their various fun palaces come Friday morning.

While they will (usually) be accompanied by their mums, dads, grandparents, siblings or others, that doesn't mean it should be business as usual for our homicidally maniacal, caffeine-deprived, Canberra motorists. Can we please place a one-day moratorium on zipping in and out of lanes without indicating, speeding through 40km/h school zones and overtaking on roundabouts in a bid to score that mythical last free parking space in the parliamentary triangle?

Just wind it back for the day and pause for the children. The time might come when these rug rats will be voting on such vital issues as involuntary euthanasia and supplementary funding for my nursing home. It makes bad economic sense to alienate a few dozen of them by scaring them half to death now.

And, while I'm on the subject of ingratiating myself to the emerging working class who, I am sure, would never consider pulling the plug on my life support 30 years from now to reduce the carbon footprint (and the power bill), I have to say the high-vis vests look pretty nifty. Best of all, one size fits all.