PATHS THAT CONNECT Walking and cycling to school as an indicator of the level of social connectedness and trust in school communities

Children’s Independent Mobility (CIM) is defined as a measure of the level of a child’s freedom to explore and move about his or her local neighbourhood without direct adult supervision (Hillman et al., 1990). An example of CIM is a child walking to school without an adult. Active transport or active commuting is generally defined as walking or cycling, and CIM is a sub-set of those who actively commute to school and other places (Hume et al., 2008, Pabayo et al., 2009).