Travel Behavior

Lack of longitudinal research hinders causal inference on the association between the built environment and walking. In the present study, we used data from 6,027 adults in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis who were 45–84 years of age at baseline to investigate the association of neighborhood built environment with trends in the amount of walking between 2000 and 2012. Walking for transportation and walking for leisure were assessed at baseline and at 3 follow-up visits (median follow-up = 9.15 years). Time-varying built environment measures (measures of population density,...

This study investigates to what extent a mismatch between residential preferences and actual residential locations is associated with residents’ physical activity and walking. The residents of Montgomery County, MD, and Twin Cities, MN, were classified into four residential subgroups, and their walking and physical activity outcomes were compared. The results showed that, for transport activity and walking outcomes, participants living in a urban location and preferring a urban environment were more likely to be active than those who lived in a suburban location and preferred 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...

Understanding how the built environment at a neighborhood scale is associated with individuals' walking has been a common research objective in public health and city planning. In contrast to the extant literature, we examine whether a neighborhood's location defined at a regional scale is associated with walking and whether this association is separately identifiable from the association of the neighborhood built environment and walking. The findings indicated that walking for commuting purposes was associated more strongly with neighborhood location than with the neighborhood built...