Children’s Active Transportation

Children’s Active Transportation is a rigorous and comprehensive examination of the current research and interventions on active transportation for children and youth.

Children and youth travel behaviors tend to be highly routinized, and their mobility faces unique constraints, such as parental restrictions, mandatory school attendance, and the inability to drive a motor vehicle before late adolescence.

Children’s Active Transportation shows how active transportation - using non-motorized modes to travel to and from places - has multiple health, environmental, and economic benefits. It examines the key factors that influence travel behavior among children and youth, providing key insights into lessons learned from current interventions. The book clearly demonstrates how critical it is for children to develop strong active transportation habits that carry over to adulthood.

Examines the public health, environmental, and economic benefits of active transportation for youthDiscusses the correlates of children’s active transportation usingf the social ecological model stating that behavior is determined by individual, interpersonal, community, policy, and environmental factorsSummarizes active transportation interventions that show "what works" to increase non-motorized modes of travel in children and idetifies the effectivness of interventionsDescribes factors that influence the implementation and effectiveness of interventions

1. Introduction

Part 1: Benefits of active transportation in children and youth 2. Public health benefits of active transportation 3. Environmental benefits of active transportation 4. Economic benefits of active transportation

Part 2: Prevalence and correlates of active transportation 5. Last child walking? 6. Bubble-wrapped generation? 7. An ecological model of children’s active transportation 8. Individual correlates of active transportation 9. Interpersonal correlates of active transportation 10. Community factors related to active transportation 11. Built and physical environment correlates of active transportation 12. Policies and their influence on active transportation 13. Prevalence and correlates of active transportation in developing countries

Part 3: Active transportation interventions 14. Safe Routes to School 15. School travel plans 16. Walking school buses 17. Taming traffic to encourage active transportation  18. Active transportation - is the school hiding the forrest? 19. Conclusions and recommendations