The Safe Routes to School Program in California: An Update

Despite efforts to combat increasing rates of childhood obesity, the problem is worsening. Safe Routes to School (SRTS), an international movement motivated by the childhood obesity epidemic, seeks to increase the number of children actively commuting (walking or biking) to school by funding projects that remove barriers preventing them from doing so. We summarize the evaluation of the first phase of an ongoing SRTS program in California and discuss ways to enhance data collection.Over the past 3 decades, obesity rates have more than doubled among children and tripled among adolescents in the United States.1 Meanwhile, the percentage of students actively commuting (walking or biking) to school declined from 41% in 1969 to only 13% in 2001.2,3To counteract these trends, Safe Routes to School (SRTS), an international movement, seeks to increase the number of children who actively commute to school by funding projects that remove barriers and improve community infrastructure. With federal funding authorized by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (Pub L No. 109-59), the California Department of Transportation invested $189 million toward SRTS efforts in the state. Of this investment, $3.8 million funded a partnership between the University of California, San Francisco, and the California Department of Public Health to form a technical assistance resource center to evaluate SRTS state-level projects targeting students in kindergarten through ninth grade.4–6 We evaluated the first phase (2008–2010) of ongoing SRTS programs representing 81 towns and cities and assessed ways to enhance data collection.