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Educating the Student Body
Programs to increase walking and cycling to school include changes 
in site selection regulations for new/remodeled schools, infrastructure 
improvements (e.g., sidewalk improvements, overpasses, traffic calming), 
safety initiatives (e.g., crossing guards, school speed zones), educational 
campaigns, “walking school buses,” and others (see Chapter 6 for more 
detailed discussion). The committee could find no empirical evaluations 
of changes in active transport to school due to relocation of schools from 
the edge of communities to the center. Evaluations of state and federal pro-
grams designed to increase the proportion of students walking or cycling 
to school provide some evidence of success
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(Staunton et al., 2003; Boarnet 
et al., 2005; Buliung et al., 2011; Hinckson and Badland, 2011; Mendoza 
et al., 2011a,b).
As discussed in Chapter 6, safety is a major concern among parents 
who do not want their children to walk or bike to school. Funding for 
infrastructure (e.g., building sidewalks, installing traffic calming structures) 
or to hire staff (e.g., crossing guards) can make areas near schools safe 
for children to walk or bike to school. From 2005 through 2012, the U.S. 
Department of Transportation provided state departments of transporta-
tion with about $1 billion for Safe Routes to School projects. These funds 
benefited about 13,000 schools—13 percent of eligible schools in the 
country (USDOT, 2012). The new transportation bill, Moving Ahead for 
Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), allows states to spend the money 
they receive to enable students to walk and bike to school more safely, but 
dedicates no funds specifically for that purpose.