Physical Activity: Interventions to Increase Active Travel to School

Key Takeaways:

Safe Routes to School is one of only fourteen evidence-based interventions included in the CDC’s High-Impact in Five Years Initiative (HI-5). This initiative promotes strategies that show a positive health impact, results within five years, and are cost-effective. Safe Routes to School is the only intervention included related to active transportation.
Safe Routes to School programs in the United States led to a reduction in traffic-related injuries around schools and neighborhoods.
In New York City over a ten-year period, injuries decreased by 44 percent in census tracts with Safe Routes to School improvements like new crossing signs, speed bumps, speed boards, and high-visibility crosswalks.
Texas (state-wide) pedestrian and bicyclist injury rates among school-age children decreased by 14 percent during the program study period (January 2008- June 2013).
A study of 18 states found that Safe Routes to School programs reduced pedestrian and bicyclist injury rates in school-age children by 23 percent.
In an evaluation of 47 California schools, pedestrian and bicycle collisions among children ages 5 to 18 in Safe Routes to School project areas were reduced by 53 percent. Evidence shows economic benefits exceed the cost of active travel to school interventions.

Methods

This article included a systematic review of 52 studies that measured the impact of Safe Routes to School programs on student active travel and prevention of pedestrian and bicycle injury (search period through March 2018).
Of the 52 studies, 40 assessed the impact of Safe Routes to School on active travel and seven assessed the program's effects on pedestrian and bicycle injuries.

Implications:

To increase safety for people walking and bicycling, especially school-aged youth, communities should implement Safe Routes to School programs.
Practitioners can make the case for investing in Safe Routes to School by showing this research demonstrating that it has a positive health impact and is cost-effective within five years.

“Physical Activity: Interventions to Increase Active Travel to School.” Community Prevention Services Task Force. Accessed September 21, 2023. https://www.thecommunityguide.org/findings/physical-activity-interventi…