Prevalence of Municipal-Level Policies Dedicated to Transportation That Consider Food Access

Abstract

Introduction Local governments can address access to healthy food and transportation through policy and planning. This study is the first to examine municipal-level transportation supports for food access. Methods We used a nationally representative sample of US municipalities with 1,000 or more persons from the 2014 National Survey of Community-Based Policy and Environmental Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living (N = 2,029) to assess 3 outcomes: public transit availability, consideration of food access in transportation planning, and presence of demand-responsive transportation (DRT). We used x2 tests to compare prevalences by municipal characteristics including population size, rurality, census region, median educational attainment, poverty prevalence, racial and ethnic population distribution, and low-income low-access to food (LILA) status. Results Among municipalities, 33.7% reported no public transit and 14.8% reported having DRT. Both public transit and DRT differed by population size (both P 50,000 persons vs 16.8% among municipalities of <2,500 persons; P