We directly observed the prevalence of walking and bicycling (active commuting) to 8 randomly selected urban and suburban elementary schools. When school was used as the unit of analysis, only 5.0% of the students actively commuted to or from school across all observed trips. Active commuting was not affected (P >/=; 18) by school urbanization level, school socioeconomic status, time of day, day of week, weather conditions, or temperature. These results indicate a need for school- and community-based interventions.