Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers

Conventional wisdom and previous research hold that walking and bicycling for transportation purposes are not common outside of urban areas. This hypothesis is based on a binary classification of land area into two categories, urban and rural. This paper applies a novel seven-category typology of rurality to the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to investigate the true prevalence of travel behavior in multiple types of rural areas. The authors find that walking and bicycling are more common in rural areas than previously thought. The paper tests additional hypotheses about trip purpose and trip length to understand more about these “active” trips. These results have direct relevance for the work of planners, decision-makers, and walking and bicycling advocates in rural areas and at the federal level.