摘要：Objectives. We examined whether certain characteristics of the social and physical environment influence a child's mode of travel between home and school. Methods. Students aged 11 to 13 years from 21 schools throughout London, Ontario, answered questions from a travel behavior survey. A geographic information system linked survey responses for 614 students who lived within 1 mile of school to data on social and physical characteristics of environments around the home and school. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the influence of environmental factors on mode of travel (motorized vs “active”) to and from school. Results. Over 62% of students walked or biked to school, and 72% from school to home. The likelihood of walking or biking to school was positively associated with shorter trips, male gender, higher land use mix, and presence of street trees. Active travel from school to home was also associated with lower residential densities and lower neighborhood incomes. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that active travel is associated with environmental characteristics and suggest that school planners should consider these factors when siting schools in order to promote increased physical activity among students. Fewer than half of all children in Canada and the United States are active enough to experience the well-known health benefits of physical activity. 1 The most common form of physical activity for people of all ages is walking, 2 and for children and youths, the journey to school represents a significant opportunity to increase daily levels of physical activity by using nonmotorized travel modes, such as walking and biking. 2 – 6 Modes of travel to school have changed dramatically over the last 40 years, however, with ever-decreasing use of “active” (nonmotorized) travel. 7 , 8 Studies of children's travel are limited and, in the United States, have found widely varying rates of active travel to school. A study in South Carolina reported that as few as 5% of elementary school students walked or biked to school, 9 and a study of North Carolina children found that 9% walked and 4% biked. 10 Research by Kerr et al. 6 based in the Seattle area found that 18% of students walked or biked to school 5 days a week and 25% used active travel at least 1 day a week. Meanwhile, a comprehensive nationwide study by Martin et al. found that 48% of students who lived within 1 mile of school were active travelers, 11 suggesting that geographical factors are at play. We examine sociodemographic and environmental influences on a child's mode of travel between home and school in a midsized Canadian city (London, Ontario) and explore differences in travel mode between the journey to school and the trip home from school.
