JTLU Volume 9, No. 2 (2016)

Persistent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/182414

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Transport and land use in childhood , pp. 1-4

School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children's school travel behavior, pp. 5-23

Past and present of active school transportation: An exploration of the built environment effects in Toronto, Canada from 1986 to 2006, pp. 25-41

Do children walk where they bike? Exploring built environment correlates of children's walking and bicycling, pp. 43-65

Longitudinal analysis of adolescent girls' activity patterns in San Diego and Minneapolis: Understanding the influence of the transition to licensure, pp. 67-86

Children and youth transport in different urban morphological types, pp. 87-103

Quantifying the role of disturbances and speeds on separated bicycle facilities, pp. 105-119

New methods to measure the built environment for human-scale travel research: Individual access corridor (IAC) analytics to better understand sustainable active travel choices, pp. 121-145

Do characteristics of walkable environments support bicycling? Toward a definition of bicycle-supported development, pp. 147-188

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Introduction: Transport and land use in childhood
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Buliung, Ron N.; Mitra, Raktim
What is the relationship between childhood, transportation, and land use? What are the social and environmental—along with political, economic, and policy-related factors and forces—that produce transport in childhood? How do we create places where childhood is considered more explicitly in transport and land-use planning? What is the effect of research methods in producing knowledge about the relationship between childhood, transport, and land use? These are some of questions that shaped the call for papers, "Children and Youth Transport and Land Use: Theory, Method and Applications," for the 2014 World Symposium on Transportation and Land Use Research held in Delft, Netherlands.
School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children's school travel behavior
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Larsen, Kristian; Buliung, Ron N.; Faulkner, Guy
The most common form of physical activity for people of all ages is walking, thus the use of active travel modes, such as walking or cycling for school trips, can increase daily physical activity levels. School travel is one way to encourage walking and cycling on a daily basis. Much of the recent literature reports inconsistent results pertaining to how the built environment may relate to active school travel. To date, there is no consistent approach toward conceptualizing the "environment" for its measurement, and this may be partially to blame for the inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine how characteristics of the built environment might relate to mode of school travel, while testing how measurement of the environment may influence the results in terms of the shortest path or respondent reported route mapping. The results indicate that model parameter estimates vary when using these two route measurement methods. Differences in the conceptualization and measurement of the school travel environment could carry forward into misguided planning or policy interventions targeting environmental features that may actually have no influence on school travel decisions.
Past and present of active school transportation: An exploration of the built environment effects in Toronto, Canada from 1986 to 2006
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Mitra, Raktim; Papaioannou, Elli M.; Nurul Habib, Khandker M.
The health benefits of walking and cycling to and from school, also called active school transportation (AST), are well documented. In the context of a declining trend in AST across the Western world, this paper examines school-travel behavior of 11-year-old children in Toronto, using multiple cross-sectional data from 1986, 1996, and 2006 Transportation Tomorrow Surveys. Results from binomial logit models suggest that school-travel distance and neighborhood built environment indeed explain some variation in the odds of AST between 1986 and 2006, and that the correlates of AST may have changed over time. Higher neighborhood block density correlated with walking/cycling in 1986. In contrast, household automobile ownership was negatively associated with AST in 2006; the effect of the built environment was relatively weak for that year. In addition, fewer children walked/cycled in 2006 compared to 1986, even when distance to school was short (<0.8 kilometers). Policy and programs should recognize the potentially changing role of travel distance to school and automobile ownership on a child’s school travel outcome. Interventions in neighborhoods with high automobile ownership should specifically focus on education and encouragement to increase AST rates.
Do children walk where they bike? Exploring built environment correlates of children's walking and bicycling
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Moran, Mike; Plaut, Pnina; Baron-Epel, Orna
Previous studies examined environmental correlates of children's physical activity. While most of these studies used aggregated physical activity measures (i.e., overall physical activity, active travel), little is known about the contribution of specific environmental attributes to specific types of physical activity. This study examined associations between GIS-based environmental measures and children’s self-reported walking and bicycling. The study area included “traditional neighborhoods” (N=4), characterized by high-density, land-use mix and grid-street network, and "suburban neighborhoods" (N=3), characterized by low-density, land-use segregation, and cul-de-sac streets. Data on children’s physical activity and psychosocial and socio-demographic factors were obtained through a school survey (of fifth and sixth graders) (N=573). Urban-form measures (intersection density, residential density, and built coverage) were significantly positively associated with walking and negatively associated with bicycling. These associations remained significant after controlling for social, intra- and inter-personal factors. These findings suggest that certain environments may encourage children’s walking and hinder their bicycling at the same time (and vice versa) and therefore raise the need for a more clear distinction between child-related walkability and bikeablilty.
Longitudinal analysis of adolescent girls' activity patterns in San Diego and Minneapolis: Understanding the influence of the transition to licensure
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) McDonald, Noreen C.; Merlin, Louis A.; Hu, Haoting; Shih, Joshu; Cohen, Deborah A.; Evenson, Kelly R.; McKenzie, Thomas L.; Rodriguez, Daniel A.
The proportion of teens and young adults with driver's licenses has declined sharply in many industrialized countries including the United States. Explanations for this decline have ranged from the introduction of graduated driver licensing programs to the increase in online social interaction. We used a longitudinal cohort study of teenage girls in San Diego and Minneapolis to evaluate factors associated with licensure and whether teens’ travel patterns become more independent as they age. We found that licensure depended not only on age but also on race and ethnicity as well as on variables that correlate with household income. Results also showed evidence that teen travel became more independent as teens aged, and that acquiring a license is an important part of this increased independence. However, we found limited evidence that teens' travel-activity patterns changed as a result of acquiring a driver’s license. Rather, teen independence resulted in less parental chauffeuring but little shift in travel patterns. For the larger debate on declining millennial mobility, our results suggest the need for more nuanced attention to variation across demographic groups and consideration of the equity implications if declines in travel and licensure are concentrated in low-income and minority populations.
Children and youth transport in different urban morphological types
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Sarjala, Satu; Broberg, Anna; Hynynen, Ari
As demonstrated in many earlier studies, the qualities of physical environment have great impacts on physical activity (PA) behavior. However, studying individual built-environment variables often produces contradictory effects between studies. To overcome this, we composed multivariate environment types using principal component analysis that takes notice of the inter-correlations between physical-environment variables. To get a realistic view of the places children and adolescents visit in their daily life, we used mapping methodology in which children themselves deﬁned their important places. Based on 16 built-environment variables, six built-environment types were composed around these places. We found that walking and cycling were most prominent in residential environments and least common in mixed-use business districts. Areas with big commercial buildings as well as green environments had the highest proportions of car use. Most places, in general, were visited with friends, but most typically areas with big commercial buildings and mixed-use business districts were reached in the company of friends. Relatively many places were visited alone in residential areas.
Quantifying the role of disturbances and speeds on separated bicycle facilities
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Bernardi, Silvia; Krizek, Kevin J.; Rupi, Federico
As cities aim to spur cycling, a key issue revolves around the location and quality of separated bicycle facilities. However, sometimes owing to impedances, these facilities fail to have the desired overall utility for cyclists. This study focuses on the role of non-stationary disturbances, i.e., the presence of users of other modes. The aim is to quantify the effects and frequencies of disturbances on off-street bicycle facilities (from other cyclists and pedestrians) and compare them to disturbances (from motorized vehicles) while cycling in mixed traffic. Using three segments in Bologna, Italy, we measured the frequency, type, and speed reduction attributed to different types of disturbances. We analyzed speed and likelihood of events to calculate a weighted average of the cyclists’ speed for separated bicycling facilities and on the roadway. For two of the segments, weighted speed reductions were minimal. However, in a third segment—one with considerably more disturbances—speed reductions were considerable: 20 percent for the separated facility and 40 percent for the mixed traffic. When married with cycling use patterns along the facilities, the notable speed reductions point to a possible trade-off cyclists make in choosing between different routes. The results help quantify relationships between cyclists and non-stationary disturbances; they also caution transport officials about possible unintended outcomes for separated bicycle facilities.
New methods to measure the built environment for human-scale travel research: Individual access corridor (IAC) analytics to better understand sustainable active travel choices
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Appleyard, Bruce
While travel is an inherently linear activity, most studies rely on coarse zonal measures of the built environment, likely missing key details important to human-scale travelers (pedestrians and bicyclists). To more fully understand these relationships, this study tests a new, linear spatial unit of analysis (the individual access corridor) in combination with finer-grained geospatial data (parcel, point, street network)—in sum, human-scaled measures for human-scale travel research. This paper first analyzes the current state of practice, details the development of a set of new linear human-scaled measures, and finally, provides both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of their usefulness toward research and policy application. This paper confirms that these new measures both improve model performance and, perhaps more importantly, provide richer, more nuanced insight into the influence of the built environment on human-scale travel. For example, this study finds that smaller parcels, the presence of small personal-service retail opportunities, and narrower, well-connected streets are positively associated with walking and bicycling. Furthermore, this paper is one of the first to align built environment measures along an individual’s path, from origin to destination, as well as to provide a detailed examination of the choice of bicycle over other modes.
Do characteristics of walkable environments support bicycling? Toward a definition of bicycle-supported development
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Muhs, Christopher D.; Clifton, Kelly J.
Does walkability equate with bikeability? Through a comprehensive review of studies of the built environment and bicycling, including mode choice, route choice, safety, and urban design literature, this paper addresses this question. Previous work has raised the issue that the two modes are functionally different, despite them often being combined into a nonmotorized category, and has highlighted research challenges. Existing studies of bikeability have largely focused on infrastructure. This paper contributes to the literature on bicycling and the built environment by providing a thorough review of past research with a focus on the relationships between land use, urban form, and bicycling. Highly walkable and highly bikeable environments are quite different, and there is little consistency in the built-environment attributes associated with cycling across studies. We postulate that this inconsistency is due in part to a disconnect between theory and methods of measuring the environment for cycling along with data limitations, including sample sizes and our understanding being based mainly on cross-sectional data. Many research opportunities are present for land-use planning policies now that planning for cycling is a top priority for cities and regions across the world.