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Evidence Base Home » School and Child Care » Walking or biking to school promotes physical activity and other developmental benefits and reduces driving and thus air pollution Students who do not walk to school dont obtain these benefits

Articles in Walking or biking to school promotes physical activity and other developmental benefits, and reduces driving and thus air pollution. Students who do not walk to school don’t obtain these benefits.

  • In a study by the Centers for Disease Control, 22.6% of children aged 9-13 did not participate in any physical activity in their free time in the week prior to being surveyed and 61.5% don't participate in any organized physical activity outside of school.

    CDC. 2003. Physical activity levels among children aged 9-13 years-United States, 2002. United States Centers for Disease Control. Available at: "http//.www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5233a1.htm" http//.www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5233a1.htm.

  • Possible health ben¬efits of active commuting to school include higher cardiovascular fitness among youth, which are linked with reduced risk for coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

    Blair SN, Cheng Y, Holder JS. 2001. Is physical activity or physical fitness more important in defining health benefits? Med Sci Sports Exerc 33(6 Suppl):S379-99.

  • Using the data from the European Youth Health Study, a study found that children and adolescents who cycled to school were nearly five times as likely to be in the top quartile for fitness as those who walked or used motorized forms of transport.

    Cooper AR, Wedderkopp N, Wang H, Andersen LB, Froberg K, Page AS. 2006. Active travel to school and cardio¬vascular fitness in Danish children and adolescents. Med Sci Sports Exerc 38(10):1724-31.

  • A study in Atlanta showed that each additional hour spent in a car a day was associated with a 6% likelihood of being obese.

    Frank LD, Andresen MA, Schmid TL. 2004. Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars. Am J Prev Med 27(2):87-96.

  • Children who walk or bicycle to school have higher daily levels of physical activity than children who do not actively commute to school.

    Davison KK, Werder JL, Lawson CT. 2008. Children's active commuting to school: current knowledge and future directions. Prev Chronic Dis. 5(3):A100.

  • On a typical day, the average mother spends more than an hour driving, traveling 29 miles and taking more than five trips. Women are called upon to make about two-thirds of the trips to pick up and drop off other people.

    STPP. 2002. High Mileage Moms. Surface Transportation Policy Project. Available at http://www.transact.org/report.asp?id=184.

  • A 2001 national transportation survey reported that less than 36% of all trips to and from school were made by walking or biking – a nearly 40% decline from 1977.

    Ahlport KN, Linnan L, Vaughn A, Evenson KR, Ward DS. Barriers to and facilitators of walking and bicycling to school: formative results from the Non-motorized Travel Study. Health Educ Behav. 2008;35(3):221-244.

  • National data report that in 1969, 50% of children walked to school. Today, only 12% walk to school.

    Martin S, Carlson S. Barriers to children walking to or from school - United States, 2004. MMWR. 2005;54(38):949-952.

  • In a nationwide Health Styles survey, parents of school-aged children reported that only 19% of their children had walked to school and only 9% biked.

    Dellinger AM, Staunton Cd. 2002. Barriers to children walking and biking to school – US 1999. MMWR 51(32):701-704.

  • Only 13% of trips to schools are made by walking or bicycling today nationwide.

    CDC. 2007. Kidswalk to school: A guide to promote walking to school. Dept. of Health & Human Services.

  • Walkers and bicyclists going to school have the highest injury and fatality rates.

    McMillan T. 2007. The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school. Transportation Research. 2007; Part A41:69-79.

  • Active commuting has also been associated with increased levels of independence in children and with increased social interaction and communication.

    Merom D, Tudor-Locke C, Bauman A, Rissel C. 2006. Active commuting to school among NSW primary school children: implications for public health. Health Place. 12(4):678-87.
    Leyden KM. 2003. Social capital and the built environment: the importance of walkable neighborhoods, Am J Public Health 93:1546–1551.