One of the benefits of this profession is that its unpredictable requirements mean exposure to rush hour traffic jams is rare but time spent in one this week was illuminating.

Ruminating on the wasted creativity of the thousands of frazzled, queuing people queuing in this age in which we are told that increased technology is revolutionising working lives, I ran, as M80 merged into M8, a quick, admittedly unscientific count and reckoned that around nine of every 10 cars contained a single occupant.

Meanwhile on Radio Scotland a debate was taking place about the need for improved cycle lane provision in our congested cities and I thought back to a recent trip to Copenhagen - a Northern European city not entirely unlike Glasgow in terms of population and climate - where every traffic light change sparked a cavalry charge of cyclists from one direction or another.

On arriving in the office my attention was meanwhile drawn to our letters page and a missive from one John Dunlop of Bearsden, writing in private capacity having, until recently, been chief executive of Scottish Squash and Racketball and before that a prime mover in the SFA's involvement in the marvellous Toryglen project.

Dunlop has consistently been among the few administrators who has had the courage to break from the doctrinal approach to sports provision in Scotland and in this case he cited the shocking example of Morrison's Academy having decided that cricket - the sport at which Kevin Pietersen and Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff excel - is "too complicated" for most of its pupils, in railing against what has happened to school sport as a whole, more particularly in our state schools.

He points out that its purpose was never to develop sports themselves, nor create athletes "but to give children multiple sporting options, to develop the broader individual and social skills and to cultivate an interest and hopefully a habit in sport with long term benefits for both the individual and society.

"We have seen investment in 'world class' facilities that give opportunities for a diminishing number of children who can afford sport outside of school," his message continues.

"Local authority facility hires rise in price as the cuts bite... participation levels in sport are dropping and childhood obesity and type two diabetes rises apace."

On the same day our sister paper The Evening Times memories series on its Twitter feed carried a photograph of a Miss Jean Brodie-esque teacher holding court in a playground, demonstrating netball to a group of adoring wee girls. It was taken in 1936 and the generation that was to fight World War II looked a sight healthier than that which Dunlop was describing.

"There is simply no point if the 'systems' are built on shrinking foundations," was Dunlop's message in the concluding paragraph of his letter.

"There needs to be a revision of the national sports policy, including a significant increase in investment and focus on school sports."

His views are by no means isolated since I regularly encounter similar ones among my Forty Club cricket pals - all of us decrepit products of the pre-80s teachers' strike generation but hailing from disparate backgrounds - when the subject of the health of the nation arises, as it frequently does among men of a certain age.

Dunlop's letter meanwhile elicited support in yesterday's letters page from one Roger Graham of Inverkip who noted that in "my previous capacity as sports editor of my evening local paper I constantly supported the reintroduction of team sport in state schools.

"On so many levels we as society have lost out," Mr Graham went on to observe.

"Sport itself loses a huge potential reservoir of competitors; general fitness levels have suffered for which the NHS will pick up the bill in due course; team sport in particular teaches how to operate within a group; it teaches comradeship, reliance on each other. The benefits are enormous.

"...sports bodies have failed to apply collective pressure upon politicians for the meaningful reintroduction of school sport. No amount of youth projects at local level, welcome though they are, will replace a 'captive audience' in school.

"Politicians invariably take the short term view and it is time for sports organisations to get their heads together and adopt a concerted coherent strategy for impressing on those who govern us that it is for everyone`s benefit in the long run that state schools once again adopt regular, competitive team sport throughout the country."

It is long overdue that a national debate on how we spend money on sport, in line with the health and welfare agendas, took place on this. If not we are failing future generations.

Where traffic jams and sickly youngsters unhappily collide is when we examine our physical literacy, which should be a compulsory subject on school curriculums.

Denmark, where so many get on their bikes to go to work and everywhere else, boasts some of the best sports participation figures in the world. Scotland does not.