Are bicycling and walking infrastructure key to get Americans more active? The Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program: An intervention study in four communities

Despite a raging obesity epidemic and years of efforts to encourage Americans to be more active, trends in physical activity have remained stable with only one fourth of all adults achieving recommended levels. Bicycling and walking, the predominant forms of nonmotorized, or active transportation comprise a unique potential to integrate physical activity into daily activities, such as commuting and other short distance travel (50% of all trips in the US are 3 miles or less).

Previous cross-sectional studies linked nonmotorized transportation infrastructure to activity levels; however, longitudinal investigations of comprehensive changes in nonmotorized transportation infrastructure are rare.

The Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP), part of the federal highway bill (SAFETEA-LU), authorizes the expenditure of $25 million in each of four recipient communities (Columbia, MO; Marin County, CA; Minneapolis, MN; and Sheboygan County, WI) for infrastructure and programming supporting nonmotorized transportation.

Accomplishments to date include establishing project selection criteria, selecting projects, and completing baseline surveys. Mode share of bicycling and walking trips combined ranged between 7 and 20% across the four communities, amounting to 1-4% of total miles traveled. A fifth community without interventions was included to control for time trends in nonmotorized transportation independent of infrastructure investments. Follow-up surveys will be conducted in 2010 to test the hypothesis that the NTPP substantially affects the prevalence of bicycling and walking in the four pilot communities.

Baseline results, survey methods, challenges of intervention studies, and the role of non-motorized transportation in the larger scheme of public health will be discussed.