Perceptions of walkability: Implications for walk-to-school programs

The Act 1220 Evaluation is a multi-year project studying the impact of ground-breaking legislation the Arkansas General Assembly passed in 2003. In early 2009, the Evaluation team conducted in-depth assessments of 113 schools throughout the state. One component of these studies was an assessment of the surrounding neighborhoods' walkability, as reported by school principals. Principals separately reported the percentage of students regularly choosing various forms of transportation. Analyses show that in non-rural environments, there is a significant association between the percentage of students who walk to school and some measures of perceived walkability, e.g., having room to walk (p=0.05) and how easy it is to follow safety rules (p=0.0032). In rural environments, principals' perception of walkability had no measurable effect upon students walking to school. In addition, perception of the pleasantness of the school's neighborhood and how well drivers behave had no correlation with students walking to school in either environment. This presentation will examine specific elements that correlate with greater percentages of children walking to school, which factors principals identified as those that need the most improvement, and implications for the implementation of walk-to-school programs.