Several independent studies and reports have all pointed to a similar conclusion: levels of pedestrian activity in the United States are declining. The National Personal Transportation Survey, conducted every five to seven years since the 1970s, is one of the more comprehensive efforts undertaken by the U.S. Department of Transportation to determine the changes in American travel patterns over time. The survey shows that Americans are making significantly fewer walking trips. Walking as a percentage of all trips taken dropped from 9.3 percent in 1977, to 7.2 percent of all trips in 1990, and just 5.4 percent of all trips in 1995. Walking declined even more sharply among children over the same time period. The United States Census has also historically counted the number of people walking to work, a figure that has also decreased from nearly 10 percent of all commuters in 1960 to less than 4 percent in 1990.

A recent British study examining changes in travel patterns between 1971 and 1990 showed the number of children allowed to cross the road on their own declined sharply from 75 percent to 50 percent, the number of children allowed to ride a bicycle on their own dropped from 50 percent to 14 percent, and the number of 7-8 year olds traveling to school on their own decreased from 80 percent to 9 percent.(5) Studies in the U.S. have shown similar trends: estimates are that less than one percent of children aged 7-15 now ride bicycles to school, a decrease of more than 60 percent since the 1970s.(6)