Pedestrians

A Comparative Case Study on Active Transport to and from School

Fesperman, CE
Evenson, KR
Daniel Rodriguez
Salvesen, D
2008

This study investigates active-transport-to-school initiatives through the Active Living by Design Community Action Model framework. The framework outlines five strategies that influence physical activity: preparation, promotion, programs, policies, and physical projects. A comparative case study was conducted to investigate active-transport-to-school initiatives at two North Carolina schools. A group of key stakeholders from each site was interviewed (N = 16), including principals, physical education teachers, public safety officers, city planners, regional transportation planners, city...

Relation of Modifiable Neighborhood Attributes to Walking

Daniel Rodriguez
Aytur, SA
Forsyth, A
Oakes, JM
Clifton, KJ
2008
There is a paucity of research examining associations between walking and environmental attributes that are more modifiable in the short term, such as car parking availability, access to transit, neighborhood traffic, walkways and trails, and sidewalks. Adults were recruited between April 2004 and September 2006 in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area and in Montgomery County, Maryland using similar research designs in the two locations. Self-reported and objective environmental measures were calculated for participants' neighborhoods. Self-reported physical activity was collected...

Recherche Originale: Une Etude de cas Comparative sur le Transport Actif Concernant les Allers-retours à L'école

Fesperman, CE
MRP, KRE
Daniel Rodriguez
Salvesen, D
2008

Cette étude examine les initiatives de transport actif à l'école par le système Active Living by Design Community Action Model (vie active selon le modèle d'action de conception communautaire). Le système souligne cinq stratégies influençant l'activité physique : la préparation, la promotion, les programmes, les politiques et les projets physiques.

STC Matching Grant Annual Report

Daniel Rodriguez
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 Built Environment and Health: Impacts of Pedestrian-Friendly Designs on Air Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Daniel Rodriguez
Crawford-Brown, D
2009

In the wake of the growing popularity of pedestrian-oriented community designs, it is timely to assess potential risk trade-offs of such urban planning strategies. Pedestrian-friendly designs are currently being called for and implemented in the US to tackle in particular problems associated with insufficient physical activity in the population. Unintended consequences may emerge, however, especially due to potential increases in the inhalation of pollutants as the population walking or cycling in polluted environments increases. A risk assessment of such built environment...

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

Nazelle, A De
Daniel Rodriguez
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...

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

Blanco, H
Alberti, M
Forsyth, A
Krizek, KJ
Daniel Rodriguez
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...

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

Daniel Rodriguez
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...

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
Daniel Rodriguez
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...

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

Daniel Rodriguez
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-...