  Student active commuting to school is an important component to student
achievement and student health, yet this form of physical activity has
significantly declined in the U.S. Distance between the school and student
residence is often reported as a barrier for student walking, thereby
increasing street and trail connectivity between and within residential
developments and schools could foster student walking. The purpose of this
study is to evaluate the potential benefits of increased thoroughfare
connectivity on student walking within school walking zones. This study
conducts a cost-benefit analysis of increased thoroughfare connectivity around
elementary and middle schools in a U.S. school system that serves sixty
thousand students. Benefits, which include the increased time of physical
activity from student walking and the potential cost-savings to a school system
if they had fewer students to bus to school, are compared to the financial
costs of the new connections. Advanced network optimization techniques were
applied to several suburban and rural schools from a representative the school
system to locate the optimal new thoroughfare connections that maximize student
walking to a school and minimize the length of the new thoroughfare. Results
from this case study showed that short and inexpensive new thoroughfares could
increase the potential number of student active commuters and provide a
significant increase of physical activity for those potential student walkers.
This work can foster the integration of student walking and student health in
residential planning decisions around schools.
