Pedestrians

Hot, Congested, Crowded and Diverse: Emerging Research Agendas in Planning

Blanco, H
Alberti, M
Forsyth, A
Krizek, KJ
Rodriguez, DA
Talen, E
Ellis, C
2009
This special issue explores emerging research agendas in planning. It brings together scholars from diverse schools working on new areas of research and application in urban design and planning. Emergent research agendas include both novel areas of research and important shifts in the direction of a research area. The challenge for planning schools is to reflect critically on these changes and develop long-term research agendas that can better position our field in society and academia, and provide a basis from which to assess our academic programmes. The chapters presented in this issue...

Tradeoffs in Incremental Changes Towards Pedestrian-Friendly Environments: Physical Activity and Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Rodriguez, DA
2009

A microsimulation of individuals’ activities is used in the context of a risk analysis framework to assess the impacts of hypothesized changes to the built environment on personal energy expenditure and on inhalation of air pollutants. Uncertainty is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyzes. We find both simulated individuals that augment and others that reduce their energy expenditure and inhalation dose of pollutants, with median increases displaying larger magnitudes than the decreases. Up to 75% of the population has significant increases in energy...

The Role of the Built Environment in Explaining Relationships Between Perceived and Actual Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety

Cho, G
Rodriguez, DA
Khattak, AJ
2009

While the conventional approach to safety planning has emphasized crash analysis with police-reported crash information, transportation professionals increasingly recognize the importance of proactively identifying potential crash risk and considering environmental characteristics. In a proactive approach, individuals’ perception of crash risk provides important information in identifying potential crash risk. As built environment characteristics influence the levels of pedestrian and bicycle safety, this study examined how perceived and actual crash risk are related with each other...

The Relationship Between Segment-level Built Environment Attributes and Pedestrian Activity Around Bogota’s BRT Stations

Rodriguez, DA
Brisson, EM
Estupiñan, N
2009

Few studies have examined the relationship between micro-scale features of the built environment and street segment usage. Micro-scale features of the built environment include the width of the sidewalk, the presence of amenities such as benches and trash bins, and the presence of crossing aids such as stoplights and crosswalks. This study employs segment-level primary data collected for 338 street segments in close proximity to one of 71 bus rapid transit stations in Bogotá, Colombia. We also use secondary data to control for area-level characteristics such as density, socio-...

Land Use, Residential Density, and Walking: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Rodriguez, DA
Evenson, KR
Roux, AV Diez
Brines, SJ
2009
The neighborhood environment may play a role in encouraging sedentary patterns, especially for middle-aged and older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between walking and neighborhood population density, retail availability, and land-use distribution using data from a cohort of adults aged 45 to 84 years. Data from a multi-ethnic sample of 5529 adult residents of Baltimore MD, Chicago IL, Forsyth County NC, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, and St. Paul MN enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of...

Are Perceptions about Worksite Neighborhoods and Policies Associated with Walking?

Schwartz, MA
Aytur, SA
Evenson, KR
Rodriguez, DA
2009
To examine associations of the built environment surrounding worksites and of work policies with walking behaviors. Cross-sectional convenience sample survey. Workplace. Employed adults residing in Montgomery County, Maryland. Four different step measures taken at or near work as recorded using an accelerometer and a fifth measure indicated self-reported walking from work. Participants reported on eight built environment characteristics surrounding the worksite...

Assessing Urban and Rural Neighborhood Characteristics Using Audit and GIS Data: Derivation and Reliability of Constructs

Evenson, KR
Sotres-Alvarez, D
Herring, AH
Messer, L
Laraia, BA
Rodriguez, D
2009

Measures to assess neighborhood environments are needed to better understand the salient features that may enhance outdoor physical activities, such as walking and bicycling for transport or leisure. The purpose of this study was to derive constructs to describe neighborhoods using both primary (neighborhood audit) and secondary (geographic information systems) data. We collected detailed information on 10,770 road segments using an audit and secondary data. The road segment sample was randomly split into an exploratory (60%) and validation sample (40%) for...

Addressing Pedestrian Safety: A Content Analysis of Pedestrian Master Plans in North Carolina

Jones, DK
Evenson, KR
Rodriguez, DA
Aytur, SA
2010

To systematically examine the content of pedestrian master plans in North Carolina in order to assess whether and how these plans were designed to improve pedestrian safety. Methods: All current pedestrian master plans in North Carolina through 2008 were gathered and examined using content analysis. A safety quality index was developed to assess the thoroughness with which a plan addressed safety issues in four categories: (1) goal statement, (2) analysis of current conditions, (3) policy proposals, and (4) program proposals. Plans were also compared according to the implementation...

Disaggregate Land Uses and Walking

McConville, ME
Rodriguez, DA
Clifton, K
Cho, G
Fleischhacker, S
2011
Although researchers have explored associations between mixed-use development and physical activity, few have examined the influence of specific land uses. This study analyzes how the accessibility, intensity, and diversity of nonresidential land uses are related to walking for transportation. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate associations between walking for...

Identifying Walking Trips Using GPS Data

Cho, GH
Rodriguez, DA
Evenson, KR
2011

This study developed and tested algorithms to identify outdoor walking trips from portable global positioning system (GPS) units in free-living conditions. Methods: The study included a calibration and a validation phase. For the calibration phase, we determined the best algorithm from 35 person-days of data. Measures of agreement regarding the daily number and duration of diary-reported and GPS-identified trips were used. In the validation phase, the best algorithm was applied to an additional and separate 136 person-days of diary and GPS data. Results: The preferred algorithm in the...