Public health approaches to promoting physical activity (PA) in community settings endorse the building and maintenance of environmental supports (e.g., sidewalks, bicycle trails, street lights) for walking, cycling, and other recreational activities where people live. PURPOSE: The determine the relation between perceptions of environmental supports for PA and reported PA levels. METHODS: Subjects were 406 African American women (age, μ ± SD = 35.6 ± 8.3 living in a suburban city in the Southeastern U.S. Survey data were collected using a random digit dialing telephone protocol. PA was measured using the 2000 BRFSS PA module. Subjects were classified as sufficiently active at the recommended CDC-ACSM moderate or ACSM vigorous intensity levels (30%), insufficiently active with some PA but not enough to meet the recommended levels (55%), or inactive (15%). Environmental supports for PA were measured with questions developed from focus groups about barriers to PA in minority women. RESULTS: Within their neighborhood, most classified motorized traffic as moderate or light (81%), the area safe from crime (77%), and a good place for their families to live (91%). Most reported no sidewalks (81%), and the presence of street lights as fair to poor (76%). The most frequently reported environmental barriers to PA were the absence of recreational facilities (14%), lack of sidewalks (8%), presence of unattended dogs (6%), and insufficient street lights for evening walking (5%). Comparisons of perceptions of environmental supports for PA by individual PA levels (sufficiently active vs. insufficient and inactive) showed no differences in PA by the presence or absence of sidewalks, places to exercise in the community, crime, street lights, unattended dogs, and the quality of the neighborhood (x > .05). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that self-reported environmental characteristics of the neighborhood alone may be insufficient to explain differences in individual PA behaviors. Ecologic models should be explored that combine individual, interpersonal, social, and environmental influences on individual PA behaviors. Supported by CDC U48/CCU409664-06