KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The built environment has a significant impact on a child’s choice to walk or bike to school. Specifically, children tend to avoid busy streets on their active commute to school, which is an important consideration for the planning and design of the neighborhoods surrounding schools. 

In this study, the Safe Routes to School program was associated with an approximately 23 percent percent reduction in pedestrian/bicyclist injury risk and a 20 percent reduction in pedestrian/bicyclist fatality risk in school-age children (5-19 years) compared to adults (30-64 years). 

Both the quality and process of placemaking, defined loosely within this publication as a project that occurs in public spaces helping people to feel connected to a place and greater community, has demonstrated physical, mental, and social health benefits.

This study suggests that a distance of approximately 2 km between home and school provides the best potential physical activity outcomes related to active transport for children and adolescents. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: This study found that neighborhood social environments have a positive influence on children’s active commuting to and from school for boys, and an inverse significant association for girls. 

When planning for development around a school, a low-speed-road environment more than two miles away from highways, with less auto-centric commercial use, and safer pedestrian infrastructure around transit stops is preferred to minimize pedestrian crashes.

Youth support for policy change, program development and community planning can be the catalyst to success: When kids speak up, adults listen. 

Archived tweets from #MoveEquity tweetchat with @SafeRoutesNow @Surgeon_General @NDRNadvocates @completestreets @ESPAConsulting @BikeLeague @KjensmoWalker

Key takeaway:

• In this study, interactions with parents and peers and availability of sedentary media activities, after-school programs, and community centers influenced frequency and intensity of physical activity.

Key takeaway:

• This study documents the implementation of Active & Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) in an indigenous community in Canada.

This report offers insights into how newly expanding access to data can assist in improving walking and biking programs, provides an overview of the current state of data access and its limitations, and highlights case studies of communities and organizations using data to make walking and bicycling programs and policies function more effectively.

We are in a time of rapid change when it comes to using data to understand and improve health and safety. Join this webinar to learn how data can be used to inform and support Safe Routes to School initiatives. 

Key takeaway:

• As more Vision Zero policies are getting adopted in the United States, infrastructure design should remain central to increase safety in cycling, but it must be supplemented with other initiatives to promote a safe cycling culture.

Archived tweets from #MoveEquity tweetchat with @SafeRoutesNow @VisionZeroNet @LAvisionzero 

Grassroots efforts to improve equitable access to swimming facilities in a low-income neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minn. (10.5% Latino), spurred a formalized Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Join this webinar to learn about the Safe Routes Partnership’s new report Making Strides: 2016 State Report Cards on Support for Walking, Bicycling, and Active Kids and Communities. 

A breakdown of information about the cost for Safe Routes to School improvements.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

School-based programs and opportunities for active travel can be cost-effective interventions for increasing physical activity, but continued study is needed.

Archive of the tweetchat with @SafeRoutesNow @GirlTrek @HealthierGen @AmericaWalks @AL_Research @Voices4HK @leagueofcities @LACBC

This infographic in Spanish features evidence on the barriers of walking and biking to school and the positive impacts of SRTS programs on physical activity levels and safety. Findings presented in this infographic come from a related ALR research review.