Research article
Walkability and Safety Around Elementary Schools: Economic and Ethnic Disparities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.01.024Get rights and content

Background

Children’s physical inactivity and obesity are growing public health problems in the U.S., especially among low-income, minority populations. Walking to school may help address these problems.

Methods

This cross-sectional study examined disparities in the environmental support for walking around 73 public elementary schools in Austin TX. GIS was used to measure the neighborhood-level walkability and safety. Field audits were conducted to assess the street-level walkability. Analyses of variance and regressions were performed to analyze economic and ethnic disparities.

Results

For the top-quartile schools with higher poverty or Hispanic student percentages, the surroundings showed higher neighborhood-level walkability with shorter distances to school and more sidewalks compared with the bottom quartile. These areas, however, also had higher crash and crime rates and lower street-level walkability captured by visual quality, physical amenities, maintenance, and perceived safety. In predictions of environmental conditions using poverty and Hispanic student percentages, poverty was associated with many adverse conditions on the street level and with only two favorable situations, shorter distances to school and lower traffic volumes, on the neighborhood level. The Hispanic student percentage did not correlate with most street-level variables, but predicted both increased dangers from traffic and crime and higher neighborhood-level walkability with more sidewalks, greater density, and mixed land uses.

Conclusions

Economic and ethnic disparities exist in the environmental support for walking, suggesting the need for tailored interventions in promoting active living. Low-income, Hispanic children are more likely to live in unsafe areas with poor street environments but with some favorable neighborhood-level conditions.

Introduction

Walking to school is an affordable and environmentally clean mode of transportation that may increase physical activity and reduce obesity.1, 2, 3 Unfortunately, recent decades have witnessed a steep decline in walking to school among school-aged children.4 In addition to individual and social factors, physical environmental barriers such as long travel distances,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 poor or missing pedestrian facilities,5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and dangers from traffic and crime4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 have contributed to this decline. Other physical environmental features such as density, land-use mix, street connectivity, and physical amenities (such as street lighting and trees) appeared to encourage walking to school in some studies9, 13, 15, 16 yet resulted in inconsistent findings in others.5, 6, 7, 14, 15 Currently, programs are being implemented at the national, state, and local levels to improve the environmental support for walking to school. However, assessment methods and empirical evidence are still limited in terms of the specific walkability and safety issues related to children’s walking-to-school behaviors.

Meanwhile, economic and ethnic disparities have emerged as new themes related to the environmental support for walking to school. Several studies found that low-income or minority children walked more often during school travels than did affluent or non-Hispanic white children.6, 15, 17 However, other studies reported ethnicity and family income to be insignificant factors.9, 10, 18 Further, walkability and safety of the built environment may differ by the neighborhoods’ SES or ethnic composition. For example, a California study found that low-income or minority children were exposed to disproportionately high volumes of traffic.19 In such a case, the potential health benefits of walking as physical activity may be undermined by the threats to personal safety and respiratory health. These low-income, minority children may have no alternative means of transportation and are thereby called “captive walkers” in transportation literature.20 They also may have limited access to physical activity facilities21 and healthy diet options,22 and therefore have a high risk of developing obesity.23, 24

Despite these recent studies, low-income and minority neighborhoods have been underrepresented in the walkability literature.25 Very few studies have examined the relationships among walkability factors at different spatial scales26, 27, 28 or between walkability and safety.13, 29 This study examines different aspects of environmental support for walking around elementary schools, including neighborhood-level walkability, street-level walkability, and neighborhood-level safety related to traffic and crime. It also explores disparities based on the students’ economic status and ethnicity.

Section snippets

Methods

The study site consisted of the attendance areas of 73 public elementary schools in the Austin Independent School District within the city of Austin TX; the unit of analysis was the school’s attendance area. This district covers 230 square miles (59,560 hectares) and features a unique mix of sociodemographic and physical environmental characteristics. Its high percentage of Hispanic students (54.7% during the 2004–2005 school year)30 represents an important trend in the Texas population (35.9%

Results

According to GIS maps (see Figure 2 for examples), schools with higher poverty or Hispanic student rates had greater neighborhood-level walkability in their attendance areas: more students living near school, more completed sidewalk networks, and greater residential density and land-use mix. However, they also had increased dangers from traffic and crime and lower street-level walkability such as poor visual quality, lack of physical amenities, and poor maintenance.

Based on Moran’s I, most

Discussion and Conclusion

Several limitations of this study should be noted. First, GIS data were collected at different times from 2000 to 2007, and had different levels of accuracy from precise points to census blocks. However, the utility of GIS data for this type of research seems promising, because of their increasing availability, precision, and coverage. Second, different units of analyses were used for the neighborhood-level and the street-level measures. In the assessment of street-level conditions, only one

References (38)

  • R. Ewing et al.

    School location and student travel: analysis of factors affecting mode choice

    Transportation Research Record

    (2004)
  • R. Ewing et al.

    Neighborhood schools and sidewalk connections: What are the impacts on travel mode choice and vehicle emissions?

    Transport Res News

    (2005)
  • T. McMillan et al.

    Johnny walks to school—does Jane?Sex differences in children’s active travel to school

    Child Youth Environ

    (2006)
  • M. Schlossberg et al.

    School trips: effects of urban form and distance on travel mode

    J Am Plann Assoc

    (2006)
  • J. Kerr et al.

    Active commuting to school: associations with environment and parental concerns

    Med Sci Sports Exerc

    (2006)
  • T.E. McMillan

    Walking and urban form: modeling and testing parental decisions about children’s travel

    (2003)
  • M. Braza et al.

    Neighborhood design and rates of walking and biking to elementary school in 34 California communities

    Am J Health Promot

    (2004)
  • T.E. McMillan

    The influence of urban form on a child’s trip to school

  • K.R. Evenson et al.

    Statewide prevalence and correlates of walking and bicycling to school

    Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med

    (2003)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text