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Place Matters 
Residents of neighborhoods with close proximity to 
schools and greater connectivity of pathways walk and cycle to school 
more than residents of neighborhoods with low proximity and connectiv-
ity (Saelens et al., 2003; Duncan and Mummery, 2005).
Support from a variety of community organizations also is possible. 
Pedestrian advocacy groups (e.g., WalkBoston, Pedestrians Educating 
Drivers About Safety [Atlanta], PedNet [Missouri]) are likely to be support-
ive, as are some health groups concerned about conditions such as diabetes, 
obesity, and heart disease. Two groups likely to be willing to help promote 
active school transport and prevent associated traffic mishaps are local 
emergency department physicians and local chapters of the AAP. In Miami 
1
A U.S. Department of Transportation Fact Sheet provides two more examples but includes 
no explanation of how the information was obtained (USDOT, 2012).

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Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
The Effectiveness of Physical Activity and Physical Education Policies and Programs
 
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a program led by providers of hospital emergency room care has offered 
educational programs on pedestrian and bicycle safety and on infrastruc-
ture changes to enhance safety (Gillian et al., 2004).
Status and Trends
The prevalence of walking or bicycling to school among American 
school-aged children declined from 42 percent in 1969 to 13 percent in 
2001 (McDonald, 2007) (see Figure 2-11 in Chapter 2). Among children 
who live within 1 mile of their school, the prevalence has fallen from 
86 percent to 50 percent. There is a strong and inverse relationship between 
distance to school and the prevalence of active transport (see Table 7-1) 
(McDonald, 2008). During the past 40 years, but especially in the 1970s 
and 1980s, new schools were likely to be built away from residential neigh-
borhoods. As a result, fewer students now live close enough to school to 
walk (McDonald, 2008). Today only about one-third of students live within 
a mile of their school (Martin et al., 2007). In some areas, the proportion 
is much lower; in Georgia, for example, only an estimated 10-15 percent of 
students live close enough to walk (Falb et al., 2007). The proportion varies 
widely among schools, however, so that active transport programs for some 
schools could have a major impact. The shift from placing new schools in 
residential areas to placing them in sparsely populated areas at the edge of 
communities is responsible for about half of the decline in active transport 
since 1969; changes in demographics and social norms and an increase in 
the proportion of special-focus schools (e.g., science, arts) account for the 
other half of the decline. 
Impact on Physical Activity 
Recent systematic reviews have found that students who walk or bike 
to school are more physically active than students who do not (Davison 
et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2008; Faulkner et al., 2009). A few studies have