Land Use and Built Environment

Promoting Active Community Environments Through Land Use and Transportation Planning

Aytur, SA
Rodriguez, DA
Evenson, KR
Catellier, DJ
Rosamond, WD
2007
To examine the role of land use and transportation plans as policy instruments for promoting active community environments. Cross-sectional analysis using multilevel models to examine whether active community environment scores were associated with leisure and transportation-related physical activity (PA) and whether associations varied by household income. 67 North Carolina counties Adults (n = 6694) from pooled 2000 and 2002 North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)...

The Development and Testing of an Audit for the Pedestrian Environment

Clifton, KJ
Smith, ADL
Rodriguez, D
2007

Recognizing the need for consistent, reliable, and efficient methods to collect information about the walking environment, the authors have developed and tested a complete environmental audit methodology—the Pedestrian Environmental Data Scan (PEDS). In this paper, the development of the audit methodology is presented, including the design of the instrument, the creation of training and supporting materials, administration, and integration with handheld technology. Various tests of inter- and intra-rater reliability of our instrument have been conducted, including individual audit...

Using TRANUS to Construct a Land Use-Transportation-Emissions Model of Charlotte, North Carolina

Morton, BJ
Rodriguez, DA
Song, Y
Cho, EJ
2012

Integrated land use-transportation-emissions models are necessary to rigorously assess the potential of land use and transportation policies to reduce the vehicular emissions contributing to tropospheric ozone and to fine particulate matter. A theoretically- and empirically-grounded model contains these major components: data on economic sectors, population sectors, and intersectoral flows of commodities and labor; a transportation network; sectoral demands for land, predicting both the quantity and location demanded; elastic trip generation; transportation mode choice including non-...

The Relationship Between Urban Form and Station Boardings for Bogota’s BRT

Estupiñan, N
Rodriguez, DA
2008

Despite emerging evidence about the association between the built environment and travel behavior, the relationship between bus transit demand and urban form remains largely unexplored. By relying on primary and secondary data analyzed with a geographic information system, this paper examines the built environment characteristics related to stop-level ridership for Bogotá’s successful bus rapid transit system. After accounting experimentally and statistically for the simultaneity between transit supply, transit demand, and the built environment, we find evidence of the importance of...

Space Syntax and Walking in a New Urbanist and Suburban Neighbourhoods

Baran, PK
Rodriguez, DA
Khattak, AJ
2008

Prevailing measures of street design have largely ignored the relational properties between local and global street design as correlates of walking behaviour. This study contributes to understanding relationships between the syntactical properties of street design and walking behaviour by examining whether space syntax measures in New Urbanist and conventional suburban neighbourhoods are associated with the walking patterns of residents in these communities. Relying on geographic information systems, survey data and travel diaries, the study relates control, local integration and global...

Neighbourhood Types, Travel and Body Mass: A Study of New Urbanist and Suburban Neighbourhoods in the US

Brown, AL
Khattak, AJ
Rodriguez, DA
2008

Using an ecological framework, this paper examines the body mass index (BMI), physical activity and travel behaviour of household heads in a US new urbanist neighbourhood relative to household heads of comparable conventional suburban US neighbourhoods. Using a quasi-experimental design, a new urbanist neighbourhood and five conventional suburban neighbourhoods were matched on age of development, assessed property values and regional accessibility. Self-reported height, weight, physical activity and travel behaviours were obtained from the household heads in each neighbourhood type....

Land Value Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit: The Case of Bogotá’s TransMilenio

Rodriguez, DA
Mojica, CH
2008

During the last decade, bus rapid transit (BRT) has revolutionized regional transportation planning in much of the developing and developed world. BRT went from being a fringe transportation option used in a handful of Brazilian and Australian cities to becoming a prominent mass transportation alternative for local and national governments. BRT is not a single concept; rather, it encompasses a variety of applications designed to improve the level of service of bus-based mass transportation to deliver comfortable, cost-effective mobility emulating rail transit (Wright and Hook 2007, 11). It...

Factors Influencing Implementation of Local Policies to Promote Physical Activity: A Case Study of Montgomery County, Maryland

Salvesen, D
Evenson, KR
Rodriguez, DA
Brown, A
2008

Policy interventions such as zoning ordinances, school facility siting guidelines, capital improvement programs, and park master plans hold particular promise for promoting physical activity, especially at the local level. Despite increasing attention to the relationship between built environment characteristics and physical activity, there is a paucity of research on the extent to which local policies can promote or hinder physical activity. Furthermore, the impact of local policies on physical activity should depend on how effectively the policies are implemented. Based on the...

STC Matching Grant Annual Report

Rodriguez, DA
2008

While the conventional approach to safety planning has emphasized crash analysis with police-reported crash information, transportation professionals increasingly recognize the importance of identifying potential crash risk and considering environmental characteristics. In this proactive approach, individuals’ perception of crash risk provides important information in identifying potential crash risk. As built environment characteristics such as the presence of crosswalks, sidewalks, and number of lanes, are expected to influence the levels of pedestrian and bicycle safety, this study...

The Sociodemographics of Land Use Planning: Relationships to Physical Activity, Accessibility, and Equity

Aytur, SA
Rodriguez, DA
Evenson, KR
Catellier, DJ
Rosamond, WD
2008

Little is known about relationships between attributes of land use plans and sociodemographic variations in physical activity (PA). This study evaluates associations between policy-relevant plan attributes, sociodemographic factors, and PA in North Carolina. Results suggest that land use plans that included non-automobile transportation improvements and more comprehensive policies to guide development were positively associated with both leisure and transportation-related PA. However, residents of counties with lower-income levels and higher proportions of non-white residents were...