Like Urban Research on Facebook

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

by Brian E. Saelens, James F. Sallis, and Lawrence D. Frank

Research in transportation, urban design, and planning has examined associations between physical environment variables and individuals’ walking and cycling for transport. Constructs, methods, and findings from these fields can be applied by physical activity and health researchers to improve understanding of environmental influences on physical activity. In this review, neighborhood environment characteristics proposed to be relevant to walking/cycling for transport are defined, including population density, connectivity, and land use mix. Neighborhood comparison and correlational studies with nonmotorized transport outcomes are considered, with evidence suggesting that residents from communities with higher density, greater connectivity, and more land use mix report higher rates of walking/cycling for utilitarian purposes than low-density, poorly connected, and single land use neighborhoods. Environmental variables appear to add to variance accounted for beyond sociodemographic predictors of walking/cycling for transport. Implications of the transportation literature for physical activity and related research are outlined. Future research directions are detailed for physical activity research to further examine the impact of neighborhood and other physical environment factors on physical activity and the potential interactive effects of psychosocial and environmental variables. The transportation, urban design, and planning literatures provide a valuable starting point for multidisciplinary research on environmental contributions to physical activity levels in the population.


similar posts:

New German community models car-free living

Agent-based Simulation of Human Movement Shaped by the Underlying Street Structure

Evaluated Model of Pedestrian Movement Based on Space Syntax, Performance Measures and Artificial Neural Nets

A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PEDESTRIAN NETWORK AND PEDESTRIAN VOLUME ACCORDING TO LAND USE PATTERN

MEASURING WALKING. TOWARDS INTERNATIONALLY STANDARDISED MONITORING METHODS OF WALKING AND PUBLIC SPACE

Cleanliness from a car

Neighborhood Design and the Accessibility of the Elderly: An Empirical Analysis in Northern California

No comments:

Post a Comment