as a form of active transportation for children: A review of the evidence. Journal of School Health. 85, 197-210.
- Biking and walking to school may vary by factors like distance to school, speed of traffic, school encouragement, and children asking permission.
- Students were 2.6 times as likely to walk or bike to school if these modes were promoted by the school.
- Students who lived within 0.5 miles of the school were 16.7 times as likely to walk or bike to school than those living further away.
- Lower travel times were associated with higher percentages of walking and biking to school; 23.8% of children biked or walked who were less than 5 minutes away, while only 2.2% of children more than 20 minutes utilized active modes.
- More children in kindergarten through fifth grade walked or biked to school than children in sixth through eighth grade.
- Students who asked permission from their parents to walk or bike to school in the past year were seven times as likely to be using active transportation modes.
- Children whose parents reported recognizing most people on the block were 1.6 times as likely to walk or bike to school compared to children whose parents did not recognize most people.
- · Children of parents who reported speed of traffic as a significant factor affecting their decision to allow children to walk/bike to school were 58% less likely to walk/bike to school than parents who did not identify speed as a significant factor.
- This study conducted a baseline assessment of 5 SRTS-awarded schools from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade in communities with similar median incomes in Louisiana. Data was collected using parent surveys, teacher tallies, and the Pedestrian Environmental Data Scan (PEDS).
Gustat, J., Richards, K., Rice, J., Andersen, L., Parker-Karst, K., Cole, S. (2015). Youth Walking and Biking Rates Vary by Environments Around 5 Louisiana Schools. Journal of School Health, 85 (1), 36-42.
- National governments have provided subsidies for investments in increasing the safety and attractiveness of walking and biking to school. Evaluations of Safe Routes to School initiatives have found that they have been effective at changing behavior and reducing injuries.
- However, there has been little attention to the impacts of these programs on pupil transportation costs.
- This analysis assesses the potential economic benefits of Safe Routes to School programs in the US context by estimating the annual costs of using motorized transport for short trips to schools, examining real-world examples of the costs savings of SRTS programs, and evaluating land use impacts on school transportation costs using a simulation analysis of school bus routes.
- We find that there is potential for school districts and families to reduce transport expenditures through public sector investments in walking and biking infrastructure near schools. We also find that land use context matters and the most cost-effective investments would benefit schools where large numbers of children live within walking distance.
McDonald NC, Steiner RL, Palmer WM, Bullock AN, Sisiopiku VP, and Lytle BF. Costs of school transportation: quantifying the fiscal impacts of encouraging walking and bicycling for school travel. Transportation 2014, November.
- Objective. Joint use policies (JUP) encourage shared facility use, usually between schools and a city or private organization, for both physical activity-related and non-physical activity-related programs. Little is known about JUP's impact on physical activity (PA). This study examined whether more specific JUPs were associated with increased PA and decreased sedentary behavior (SB) in adolescents.
- Methods. Data on PA, sports participation, and SB were taken from annual cross-sectional nationally representative samples of 51,269 8th, 10th and 12th grade public school students nested in 461 school districts in the US from 2009–2011. JUP measures were constructed using information obtained from corresponding school district JU policies. Multivariable analyses were conducted, controlling for indivi