• Linda Rothman, Brent Hagel, Andrew Howard, Marie Soleil Cloutier, Alison Macpherson, Alberto Nettel Aguirre, Gavin R McCormack, Pamela Fuselli, Ron Buliung, Tate HubkaRao, Rebecca Ling, Moreno Zanotto, Mathieu Rancourt, and Meghan Winters.
• School of Occupational and Public Health, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada; Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, 6th Floor, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7, Canada. Electronic address: linda.rothman@ryerson.ca.
• Prev Med. 2021 May 1; 146: 106470.

AbstractWalking and bicycling to school (active school transportation, AST) has been in decline for decades in North America and globally with the rise of automobility. This cross-sectional study estimated associations between the built environment and AST in seven Canadian communities. We observed the travel behaviours of almost 118,000 students at 552 schools. Using beta regression, we modeled the proportion of children using AST, considering built environment and social environment factors around schools. Across all schools, the average proportion of children using AST was 54.3% (SD 18.9%), with variability among cities from a low of 39.5% (SD 22.1%) in Laval, Quebec to 69.7% (SD 18.1%) in Montreal, Quebec. Overall, several modifiable road design features were associated with AST, including the presence of school crossing guards, cycling infrastructure, Walk Score® and traffic signal density. There was variability in the directionality and statistical significance of associations with design variables across cities, suggesting that the local context and directed local interventions are important to support AST. Natural experiment studies are necessary to examine local approaches related to the built environment to increase AST and ensure appropriate new policy and program interventions are developed.Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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