| Summary: | The way adolescents travel to school can be an important health promotion strategy. The main objective of this research was to identify the relationships between the Portuguese adolescents’ perception of their neighbourhood and their option for active transportation (AT). The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2010 questionnaire, was applied to 3,494 adolescents with an average age of 14.93 (DP ± 1.29), 53.6% of whom were female. The associations were studied by applying χ² tests and multivariate logistic regression models. In this study, 35% of the sample reported walking or cycling to school. AT to school is associated with age, more frequent in the adolescents aged 16 and older (OR = 1.19, p < .05), more frequent in residential areas with good public services (OR = 1.79, p < .05), as well as in beautiful neighbourhoods (OR = 1.76, p < .05), less frequent in neighbourhoods with nightlife entertainment (OR = 0.73, p < .05), and in those characterized by violence and theft (OR = 0.56, p < .05) as well as in isolated areas (OR = 0.66, p < .05). Finally, it was more frequent when the travel time from home to school was lower (OR = 0.57, p < .05). Conclusion: The results show that the adolescents’ perceptions about some of the characteristics of their neighbourhood environments are associated with their options concerning AT when travelling to school.
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