The survey, believed to be the first of its kind, was a "snapshot" carried out in 71 of the 82 schools (year 1-13) in Dunedin on a single day earlier this year. Teachers asked pupils to indicate, by a show of hands, the main mode of transport they used to travel to school that morning.
A third of the pupils surveyed said they walked, 4% biked, 2% scooted, 2% drove themselves, 12% took the bus and 47% were driven by their parents.
NZ Principals Federation president Paddy Ford said the statistics were concerning. He believed about 75% of pupils would have walked to school 20 years ago and the increasing number of parents driving their children to school was not only contributing to unhealthy lifestyles, it was causing traffic congestion around schools.
On wet days, it was chaos, he said.
"I'm sure a lot more than 33% of kids could walk to school.
"Principals are complaining on a regular basis now about the amount of traffic and poor driving habits around schools."
Otago Primary Principals Association chairman Andy Larson said children being abducted on their way to or from school was a major concern for parents, and it was a significant factor in their decision to drop their children off - particularly primary school-aged children.
However, the increase in "pupil ferrying" was also a 21st century phenomenon in which there were a greater number of working parents who dropped their children off at school on their way to work.
"It can't help if a child is being driven to school each day. But the reality is, it's a lifestyle and we've got to assist that child with their health and fitness.
"Here again, it's a society problem that education is having to deal with."
Heart Foundation spokeswoman Elissa Downey said New Zealand schools must take a proactive role in heart health to avoid a crisis.
She encouraged all schools to implement healthy food and activity programmes to combat a potentially worsening overweight, obesity and inactivity problem in children.
Recent research by the Ministry of Health added weight to concerns about children's health. It showed one in five New Zealand children were overweight and a further one in 12 was obese. About 71% surveyed ate fast food in the previous week, 7.2% ate fast food three times or more during that week, while 19.6% had three or more fizzy drinks. Two out of three children (64.1%) usually watched two or more hours of television a day.
While walking to school was an easy way to get the recommended 30 minutes of exercise each day, Miss Downey said it was not a reality for all children to walk. Many pupils lived too far from their school.
The challenge was for those who could not walk to get 30 minutes of exercise in another way, she said.
One solution was for parents to take their children to a park three days a week and at the weekend for exercise.
"Make it a routine outing for everyone.
"Government policies such as Guidelines for Healthy Confident Kids, Mission On and the new food and beverage classification system set clear challenges for schools and early childhood centres. More schools need to implement prevention programmes if we are to fight the increasing prevalence of child obesity and prevent heart disease."
Dunedin City Council senior traffic engineer Bruce Conaghan said the survey was a baseline for future surveys to be conducted every two to three years.
The statistics would help council and schools to work toward reducing car traffic around school gates.
He also hoped schools would see the survey as a motivating factor, making them competitive with other schools to find ways of reducing the number of parents dropping their children off.
