Factors Preventing Walking to Near-Home Destinations by Transportation Walking Status, U.S. Adults, 2022

Increasing transportation walking (i.e., walking to get to and from destinations) is a key strategy for increasing physical activity, but what is not well understood are factors preventing people who do not walk for transportation from initiating that practice and current transportation walkers from maintaining or increasing this behavior. This study describes factors preventing adults who report walking or not walking for transportation from regularly walking to destinations near home. National data from the 2022 Summer Styles survey included 3,955 U.S. adults who indicated factors preventing them from regularly walking to places within a 10-minute walk of their home, selecting all that apply from 11 environmental, access, or individual factors, or "None of the above." We estimated weighted prevalence for each factor and conducted pairwise t-tests to identify significant differences (p<.05) by transportation walking status. About 31% of adults not walking for transportation in the past 7 days reported having no places to walk to within a 10-minute walk, more than double the prevalence among transportation walkers (14%). Compared to transportation walkers, more adults not walking for transportation reported individual factors (i.e., 24% preferred driving or being driven, vs. 19%; 23% reported inconvenience, vs. 19%), while more transportation walkers reported environmental factors (e.g., 40% reported hot or humid conditions, vs. 34%) or none of the factors. These findings suggest those not walking for transportation may need varied interventions, such as mixed land use for near-home destinations and individual supports, to meet their needs for transportation walking.