Resource Library

This brief examines the extent to which local land use laws require structural improvements that facilitate physical activity. It also examines whether such requirements vary based on community income. The data was collected in 2010 from 264 communities across the United States.

This statewide study was undertaken to assess how accessible and friendly Hawaii roads are to walking and bicycling.

Few studies have examined how joint-use agreements between schools and communities affect use of school facilities after hours for physical activity in under-resourced communities. The objective of this study was to assess whether these agreements can increase community member use of these opened spaces outside of school hours.

Limited evidence exists on the metabolic and cardiovascular risk correlates of commuting by vehicle, a habitual form of sedentary behavior. To examine the association between commuting distance, physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and metabolic risk indicators.

A recent paper in the economics literature finds an inverse relationship between gasoline prices and obesity risk—suggesting that increased gasoline prices via higher gasoline taxes may have the effect of reducing obesity prevalence. This study builds upon that paper.

Availability of public neighborhood parks is associated with physical activity. Little is known about how parks contribute to population energy balance. This study estimated energy expenditure associated with the use of neighborhood parks and compared energy expenditure by activity areas within parks and by neighborhood race/ethnicity and income.

Thousands of American children under the age of 10 years are injured annually as pedestrians. Despite the scope of this public health problem, knowledge about behavioral control and developmental factors involved in the etiology of child pedestrian safety is limited.

This study investigated this unexplored avenue of research and identified the influences on parental attitudes towards their children walking and bicycling to school, as part of a larger nationwide effort to make children more physically active and combat rising trends of childhood obesity in the US.

The authors compared cycling injury risks of 14 route types and other route infrastructure features. They recruited 690 city residents injured while cycling in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada. A case-crossover design compared route infrastructure at each injury site to that of a randomly selected control site from the same trip.

Researchers examined the extent to which differential traffic volume and road geometry can explain social inequalities in pedestrian, cyclist, and motor vehicle occupant injuries across wealthy and poor urban areas.

To better understand bicyclists’ preferences for facility types, GPS units were used to observe the behavior of 164 cyclists in Portland, Oregon, USA for several days each. Trip purpose and several other trip-level variables recorded by the cyclists, and the resulting trips were coded to a highly detailed bicycle network.

Walking school buses (WSB) increase children’s physical activity, but their impact on pedestrian safety behaviors (PSB) is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, the authors tested the feasibility of a protocol evaluating changes to PSB during a WSB program.

This brief summarizes research on community access to school sport and recreational facilities outside of school hours, as well as studies that examine the shared use of school facilities and programs with other community groups or agencies. 

The study analyzed the Japan’s walking-to-school practice implemented in 1953 for lessons useful to other cities and countries.

This report provides information regarding current efforts in the public health community to promote community recreational use of school property to provide safe, affordable and convenient recreational facilities to communities, increase physical activity, and reduce obesity.

This presentation reviews policy and the built environment and the work of the American Heart Association and Public Health Law Center joint efforts to address liability legislatively can work to increase access to physical activity opportunities.

Recreational agreements are becoming a popular strategy that community and school partners can use to increase access to opportunities for physical activity. 

This brief examines the characteristics of joint use agreements that were in effect during the 2009–10 school year among a national sample of 157 public school districts.

This webinar highlights success stories in Colorado and Austin, Texas where a local program teamed up with a bike shop to enhance Safe Routes to School efforts.

This study examined the independent and combined associations between objectively measured time in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time with cardiometabolic risk factors.