Parent Safety Perceptions of Child Walking Routes

Walking rates to school remain low for U.S. children in large part due to parent concern for child safety. Little research has investigated the specific features of streets and intersection networks that parents associate with safe walking networks for children. To investigate which aspects of the child walking environment lead to parental concern, parent volunteers conducted an audit of streets leading to seven elementary schools in a suburban school district. Parents were most likely to feel concern about streets that lacked sidewalks or had sidewalks with obstructions. Wheelchair-accessible routes were seen as appropriate for walking children. Parents expressed concern over safety at intersections, particularly those involving large streets; traffic controls did not mollify their concern.