Land Use and Built Environment

Heterogeneity in the Urban Scaling of Premature Mortality by City Definition in the United States

McCulley, EM
Mullachery, PH
Rodriguez, D
Roux, AV Diez
Bilal, U
2021
With more than half of the world’s population currently living in cities, there is a need to understand how city-level factors, such as city size, can influence health in cities. However, there are numerous ways to define and delineate city boundaries. We explored whether years of life lost (YLL), a measure of premature mortality, scales with population size in the United States (US) from 2010 to 2015 and examined whether these scaling patterns vary by city definition, using eight different definitions. Across all city definitions, YLL displayed a sublinear scaling behavior: larger cities...

Longitudinal Associations between the Neighborhood Built Environment and Cognition in US Older Adults: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Besser, L
Chang, L
Hirsch, J
Rodriguez, D
Renne, J
Rapp, S
Fitzpatrick, A
Heckbert, S
Kaufman, J
Hughes, T
2021
Few studies have examined associations between neighborhood built environments (BE) and longitudinally measured cognition. We examined whether four BE characteristics were associated with six-year change in global cognition and processing speed. We obtained data on 1816 participants without dementia from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. BE measures included social destination density, walking destination density, proportion of land dedicated to retail, and network ratio (street connectivity). Global cognition was measured with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) and...

Built Environment Profiles for Latin American Urban Settings: The SALURBAL Study

Sarmiento, OL
Useche, A
Rodriguez, DA
Dronova, I
Guaje, O
Montes, F
Stankov, I
Wilches, M
Bilal, U
Wang, X
Guzman, L
Pena, F
Quistberg, D
Guerra-Gomez, J
Roux, AV Diez
2021

The built environment of cities is complex and influences social and environmental determinants of health. In this study we, 1) identified city profiles based on the built landscape and street design characteristics of cities in Latin America and 2) evaluated the associations of city profiles with social determinants of health and air pollution. Landscape and street design profiles of 370 cities were identified using finite mixture modeling. For landscape, we measured fragmentation, isolation, and shape. For street design, we measured street connectivity, street length, and directness. We...

The Equigenic Effect of Greenness on the Association Between Education with Life Expectancy and Mortality in 28 Large Latin American Cities

Moran, M
Bilal, U
Dronova, I
Ju, Y
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, W
Friche, A
Moore,K
Miranda, J
Rodriguez, D
2021
Recent studies highlight the equigenic potential of greenspaces by showing narrower socioeconomic health inequalities in greener areas. However, results to date have been inconsistent and derived from high-income countries. We examined whether urban greenness modifies the associations between area-level education, as a proxy for socioeconomic status, and life expectancy and cause-specific mortality in Latin American cities. We included 28 large cities, >137 million inhabitants, in nine Latin American countries, comprising 671 sub-city units, for 2012–2016. Socioeconomic status was assessed...

Urban Landscape and Street-design Factors Associated with Road-Traffic Mortality in Latin America between 2010 and 2016 (SALURBAL): An Ecological Study

Quistberg, D
Hessel, P
Rodriguez, DA
Sarmiento, OL
Bilal, U
Caiaffa, WT
Miranda, J
de Pina, M
Hernandez-Vazquez, A
Roux, AV Diez
2022
Road-traffic injuries are a key cause of death and disability in low-income and middle-income countries, but the effect of city characteristics on road-traffic mortality is unknown in these countries. The aim of this study was to determine associations between city-level built environment factors and road-traffic mortality in large Latin American cities. We selected cities from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru; cities included in the analysis had a population of at least 100 000 people. We extracted data for road-traffic deaths...

Impacts of Commute Trip Reduction Programs, Rail Station Area Built Environment Changes, and Ride-Hailing Services on Traveler Behavior

Li
Rodriguez, D
Montilla, M
Chatman, D
Chen, P
Yang, X
Winters, P
2022

This project consists of three related studies investigating strategies to address urban congestion: a) employer-based travel demand management strategies, b) improvement of transit station area built environments, and c) understanding the impacts of ride-hailing. Collectively, the three studies represent complementary strategies to address urban congestion. However, each of them focuses on a particular approach from managing demand side incentives to supply side service disruptions.

Assessing Public Health Benefits of Replacing Freight Trucks with Cargo Cycles in Last Leg Delivery Trips in Urban Centers

Hartle, J
Elrahman, O
Wang, C
Rodriguez, D
Ding, Y
McGahan, M
2022

Increased urbanization, population growth, and demand for time-sensitive deliveries means increased freight movement in cities, which contributes to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. One innovative mode gaining widespread attention for urban deliveries is cargo cycles—bicycles adapted for freight delivery. Despite the recognized potential and possible success of transporting at least 25% of freight via cycle, research remains limited. This research investigates the potential of cargo cycle delivery for last mile freight in Oakland, California, with a focus on the West Oakland...

Marked Crosswalks in US Transit-oriented Station Areas, 2007–2020: A Computer Vision Approach Using Street View Imagery

Li, M
Sheng, H
Irvin, J
Chung, H
Ying, A
Sun, T
Ng, A
Rodriguez, D
2022
Improving the built environment to support walking is a popular strategy to increase urban sustainability and walkability. In the past decade alone, many US cities have implemented crosswalk visibility enhancement programs as part of road safety improvements and active transportation plans. However, there are no systematic ways of measuring and monitoring the presence of key built environment attributes that influence the safety and walkability of an area, such as marked crosswalks. Furthermore, little is known about how these attributes change over time at a national scale. In this paper, we...

Bus Rapid Transit Impacts on Land Uses and Development Over Time in Bogotá and Quito

Rodriguez, Daniel
Vergel-Tovar, C.
2022

Despite the worldwide popularity of bus rapid transit (BRT), empirical evidence of its effects on land uses and development remains limited. This paper examines BRT’s impacts on land use and development in Bogotá and Quito, by using a parcel-level differencein-differences research design. We estimate a propensity score-weighted regression model of parcel development characteristics in treatment and control areas. In Bogotá, although parcels in close proximity to the BRT are subject to fewer changes in terms of development intensity (changes in built-up area) in relation to parcels in...

Comparing Effects of Euclidean Buffers and Network Buffers on Associations Between Built Environment and Transport Walking: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Li, J
Peterson, A
Auchincloss, AH
Hirsch, JA
Rodriguez, D
Melly, SJ
Moore, K
Roux, AV Diez
Sánchez, BN
2022

Transport walking has drawn growing interest due to its potential to increase levels of physical activities and reduce reliance on vehicles. While existing studies have compared built environment-health associations between Euclidean buffers and network buffers, no studies have systematically quantified the extent of bias in health effect estimates when exposures are measured in different buffers. Further, prior studies have done the comparisons focusing on only one or two geographic regions, limiting generalizability and restricting ability to test whether direction or magnitude of...