Pedestrian Behavior Following Implementation of a Walking School Bus

May 6, 2024 updated by: Brian Johnston, University of Washington
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a walking school bus program can increase the number of children walking to school and decrease the number of children driven by car to school.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Walking to school is associated with higher levels of physical activity, which is an objective of Healthy People 2010. However, parents' concerns about safety have been identified as a barrier that prevents their children from walking to school. A walking school bus (WSB) addresses these concerns by providing a supervised period of physical activity on the way to school. A WSB is a group of children led to and from school by responsible adults who walk together along a set route. The peer-reviewed literature on active travel to school is sparse. We evaluated a WSB program, to test the hypothesis that it would increase the proportion of children walking and decrease the proportion of children driven by car to school.

Comparison: We conducted an 18-month controlled, quasi-experimental trial at three public elementary schools in Seattle, Washington. The intervention school was assigned a WSB coordinator who dedicated 10-15 hours/week establishing WSB routes and implementing school activities on pedestrian safety. Each "bus" had its own set route to school from different locations in the surrounding neighborhoods and was staffed by several parent leaders. The two control schools received standard Seattle Public Schools resources on walking to school including "Safe Route Maps," a traffic and safety committee, and school safety patrols. The primary outcomes were the proportions of children who walked with and without an adult or were driven by car to school. We used the test for independent proportions to compare the proportion of children transported to school at the intervention versus control schools.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

735

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Washington
      • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98104
        • Harborview Injury Prevention Research Center - University of Washington

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Enrolled in school
  • Present on the day of the survey at one of 3 study schools.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Absent on the day of the survey at one of 3 study schools.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Students in school with active walk-to-school promotion programs.
Behavioral: Walking School Bus Program
Schoolwide promotion of walk to school. Facilitation of parent-led walking school bus routes.
No Intervention: 2
Students in schools with access to standard school district transportation resources.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Proportion of children walking or driven by car to school at one-year
Time Frame: 1, 6 and 12 months post initiation of intervention
1, 6 and 12 months post initiation of intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Washington

Collaborators

Baylor College of Medicine
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brian D Johnston, MD MPH, University of Washington

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2004

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 21, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 21, 2006

First Posted (Estimated)

November 22, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 9, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2024

Last Verified

May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 04-3850-E/A

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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