Policy
Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy Tools
- Safe Routes to School
- Factors Associated with Bicycle and Pedestrian Investments
- Body Weight Simulator
Safe Routes to School
The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program was created as part of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005. The US Congress initially authorized $612 million to facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of infrastructure improvements and other initiatives in and around schools to enable and encourage all children to walk and bicycle to school.
State summaries in pdf format
Safe Routes to School National Overview
Safe Routes to School Federal Transportation Funding: Glossary (html, pdf)
Coming soon: state summaries of Safe Routes to School federal transportation funding
Factors Associated with Bicycle and Pedestrian Investments
Sidewalks, bicycling infrastructure, and accessible trails and parks are just some of the features communities are seeking to encourage active living. While local and state funding is crucial, federal transportation funding is often a catalyst for improvements to the built environment.
State data profiles in pdf format
State summary of federal transportation funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs
Body Weight Simulator
Understanding the dynamics of human body weight change has important consequences for conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, starvation, and wasting syndromes such as anorexia nervosa and cancer cachexia. By using mathematical modeling to quantitatively integrate metabolism data with body weight and composition data, the Laboratory of Biological Modeling at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to substantially improve our understanding of body weight regulation and develop practical tools for research and clinical use.
One of these tools is a Body Weight Simulator, which helps us understand the impact of energy imbalance on body weight change.