Diverse school community engagement with the North Carolina active routes to school project: a diffusion study.

BACKGROUND: Schools located in rural parts of the United States and North Carolina have benefited proportionally less from the federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program than their more urban counterparts. We investigated whether and how diverse elementary and middle school communities throughout North Carolina have engaged in a SRTS-inspired, multi-sectoral initiative called the Active Routes to School (ARTS) project over the course of 5 years (2013 through 2017). METHODS: Analyses included a study sample of 2602 elementary and middle schools in North Carolina, 853 that participated in the ARTS project over the five-year study period and 1749 that had not. Statistical models controlling for county- and school-level confounders predicted schools' involvement in walking and bicycling-promotive events, programs, and policies over time. RESULTS: Schools' engagement with ARTS Project programming increased significantly over the study period, with 33% of eligible schools participating with the project by the end of 2017. Participation was most common in promotional events. Such event participation predicted engagement with regularly recurring programming and school- and district-level establishment of biking- and walking-facilitative policies. Lower income schools were more likely to establish recurring bike and walk programs than wealthier schools, whereas rural schools were less likely than city schools to participate in promotional events, yet equally as likely as other schools to participate in recurring bike and walk programs. CONCLUSIONS: Schools' engagement with the North Carolina ARTS Project diffused despite many schools' rural geographies and lower socioeconomic status. Further, participation in one-time promotional events can portend schools' establishment of recurring walking and biking programs and supportive policies.

Supporting Kids' Active Travel during the Pandemic: Milwaukee SRTS Program.

The Milwaukee Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program, a partnership between the city of Milwaukee Department of Public Works and the Wisconsin Bike Federation continued their commitment to children's active travel during the COVID-19 pandemic through offering "walk audit"-style traffic safety community walks and a variety of other biking and walking programs in neighborhoods with majority Black or Latine residents. These efforts included public involvement activities to discuss and incorporate preferences for planned infrastructure improvements; urban summer bicycle camps for kids; and support for teachers as SRTS champions. Staff made modifications such as conducting programming outdoors; modifying materials and facilitation methods to support physical distancing; providing face coverings and minimizing touching equipment. The National Center for Safe Routes to School recognized their efforts with the 2021 Vision Zero for Youth Innovation Award.

U.S. active school travel in 2017: Prevalence and correlates.

Active transportation to school (ATS), denoting walking and biking, is crucial to promote physical activity for youth. This study uses data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to report on the most recent and nationally representative school transportation patterns. Binary logit modeling determines significant factors associated with school travel mode choices. Spatial differences on school mode choices across the US are explored. In 2017 9.6% of the students of 5-17 years old usually walked and 1.1% biked to school. For students who usually walk to school, 77.5% of their school trips were less than one mile and, among usual bikers to school, 82.8% of trips were less than two miles. Student rates of walking to school decreased as the distance to school increased and biking rates peaked when distance to school was between 0.5 and 1 miles. When distance to school was <0.5 miles, walking was the most common mode for urban and rural regions. When the trip was shorter than or equal to one mile, factors such child's school grade, household vehicles per driver, and household income were associated with the decision to walk or bike to school. Other demographic characteristics like race and gender were not significantly related to ATS. While comparison across NHTS years should be viewed with caution due to changes in survey methodology, the decline of ATS rates indicate that more effective and higher reaching efforts for local, regional, and national interventions should be prioritized.

Implementing safe routes to school: application for the socioecological model and issues to consider.

The newly established national Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program has the potential to positively influence individuals, communities, and the environment regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Many communities are applying their interest in physical activity promotion toward creating policies and programs to encourage active travel, though many barriers exist. SRTS legislation provides funds to address some of the barriers and improve the ability of students to safely walk and bicycle to school. SRTS requires that 70% to 90% of the funds be used for infrastructure projects (i.e., engineering treatments, such as sidewalk construction), and 10% to 30% for noninfrastructure activities, such as education, encouragement, and enforcement. The socioecological model (SEM) is widely used in public health and includes five levels of influence on behavior, from individual to public policy. Application of the SEM to SRTS provides a framework for a comprehensive approach to improve active travel to school.