Unintended gentrification: community perspectives on children’s active mobility in the American South

Urban reinvestment projects commonly embed 'healthy‐city' objectives like Safe Routes to School (SRTS), yet little is known about their effects in neighborhoods undergoing rapid gentrification. This mixed-methods study positions children's active mobility as a behavioral lens on neighborhood change in Greenville, SC's Historic West End – a once Black, low-income district now reshaped by park development and rising property speculation. Systematic counts, behavior maps, and field observation documented school-hour travel. Semi-structured interviews with 38 parents, planners, and community advocates provided depth. Contrary to SRTS expectations, logistic models show no significant link between living within one mile of A.J. Whittenberg Elementary and walking or biking, once race and built environment are considered. Black children in nearby Special Emphasis Neighborhoods were slightly less likely to use active modes than White peers commuting farther. Interviews reveal concerns about a 'wall of cars' at pickup, cultural fears related to traffic and surveillance, and the disappearance of traditional curbside spaces. These findings complicate SRTS health narratives: without community co-design, walking and biking infrastructure may signal displacement. The study calls for context-tailored active-mobility planning that honors local practices and positions children's travel behavior as a barometer of social fragmentation before conventional displacement metrics emerge.