# Evaluating the Effects of Municipal Funding of Safe Routes to School Infrastructure on Child Physical Activity: A Natural Experiment

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2022 · $618,771

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programming or infrastructure changes can impact total
physical activity levels in children through increased active commuting to school (ACS). Previous
evaluations of SRTS initiatives have shown increases in physical activity and in the proportion of
students who engage in ACS, but no study has evaluated the effects of the implementation of a
large-scale municipal SRTS infrastructure program on objectively measured physical activity and
city-wide ACS using a controlled, prospective study design. In November 2016, $720 million in
Mobility Bond funds were approved in Austin, TX, for transportation and mobility projects,
including $27.5 million for SRTS infrastructure. Of the SRTS funding, $22.5 million was
appropriated for larger-cost, transformative infrastructure projects such as protected bike lanes,
pedestrian islands, shared use paths, and pedestrian hybrid beacons. This project provides a
unique and time sensitive opportunity to conduct a rigorous evaluation of large-scale
SRTS built environment improvements on the physical activity levels of a student school
population. The overarching goal is to assess the effects of the SRTS infrastructure initiative on
child physical activity (individual level changes), and to determine if the overall changes in built
environment improve the proportion of students who engage in ACS in Austin relative to a
comparison city (San Antonio) over the study period (population level changes). Three studies
will be conducted: (a) Study 1, a quasi-experimental cohort study in Austin SRTS schools (n =
30) and San Antonio control schools (n = 15), to evaluate the effect of large-scale,
transformative engineering infrastructure projects on student physical activity; (b) Study 2,
twice yearly collection of cross-sectional data on the proportion of children engaging in ACS
across ~70 Austin SRTS schools and 30 San Antonio comparison schools; and (3) Study 3, cost
effectiveness of the infrastructure improvements in terms of increasing child physical activity will
be determined. For Study 1, physical activity will be measured using accelerometers augmented
by GPS; child and parent questionnaires will be used to collect self-report data on physical activity
and domain-specific psychosocial factors; and the neighborhood environment will be assessed
via environmental audits and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Data for Study 2 will be
collected using standard SRTS student travel tallies. Data from this proposed project will be useful
in understanding the role that SRTS built environment changes have in increasing child physical
activity and ACS.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10443736
- **Project number:** 5R01HD097669-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** DEANNA MARIE HOELSCHER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $618,771
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10443736

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10443736, Evaluating the Effects of Municipal Funding of Safe Routes to School Infrastructure on Child Physical Activity: A Natural Experiment (5R01HD097669-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10443736. Licensed CC0.

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