Travel Behavior

City-Level Travel Time and Individual Dietary Consumption in Latin American Cities: Results from the SALURBAL Study

Guimaraes, J
Acharya, B
Moore, K
López-Olmedo, N
Menezes, M
Rodriguez, D
Stern, D
Friche, A
Wang, X
Delclòs-Alió, X
Sarmiento, O
Cardoso, L
2022
There is limited empirical evidence on how travel time affects dietary patterns, and even less in Latin American cities (LACs). Using data from 181 LACs, we investigated whether longer travel times at the city level are associated with lower consumption of vegetables and higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and if this association differs by city size. Travel time was measured as the average city-level travel time during peak hours and city-level travel delay time was measured as the average increase in travel time due to congestion on the street network during peak hours...

Is City-Level Travel Time by Car Associated with Individual Obesity or Diabetes in Latin American Cities? Evidence from 178 Cities in the SALURBAL Project

Delclos-Alió, X
Rodríguez, D
Olmedo, N
Ferrer, C
Moore, K
Stern, D
Menezes, M
Cardoso, L
Wang, X
Guimaraes, J
Miranda, J
Sarmiento, O
2022
There is growing evidence that longer travel time by private car poses physical and mental risks. Individual-level obesity and diabetes, two of the main public health challenges in low- and middle-income contexts, could be associated to city-level travel times by car. We used individual obesity and diabetes data from national health surveys from individuals in 178 Latin American cities, compiled and harmonized by the SALURBAL project. We calculated city-level travel times by car using the Google Maps Distance Matrix API. We estimated associations between peak hour city-level travel time by...

Bicycle Use in Latin American Cities: Changes Over Time by Socio-Economic PositionBicycle Use in Latin American Cities: Changes Over Time by Socio-Economic Position

Avila-Palencia, I
Gouveia. N
Jáuregui, A
Mascolli, M
Rodriguez, D
Slovic, A
Sarmiento, O
2023

We aimed to examine utilitarian bicycle use among adults from 18 large Latin American cities and its association with socio-economic position (education and income) between 2008 and 2018. Data came from yearly cross-sectional surveys collected by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). A total of 77,765 survey respondents with complete data were used to estimate multilevel logistic regression models with city as random intercept and year as random slope. Individuals with high education and high-income levels had lower odds of using a bicycle compared with participants with lower...

Evaluating the Effects of a Classroom-based Bicycle Education Intervention on Bicycle Activity, Self-Efficacy, Personal Safety, Knowledge, and Mode Choice

Nachman, Elizabeth R.
Rodríguez, Daniel A.
2019

This study provides an evaluation of the impacts of classroom-based adult bicycle education on bicycling activity, confidence and competency self-perceptions while bicycling, knowledge of the bicycling rules of the road, and mode choice in a sample of residents of the San Francisco Bay Area in the US. Changes were measured with self-administered surveys completed before and six weeks after the course intervention. Self-reported data were validated using objective data collected using the Ride Report app. We used multivariable regression analyses to examine changes in self-...

Tracking the State and Behavior of People in Response to COVID-19 Through the Fusion of Multiple Longitudinal Data Streams

Bouzaghrane, MA
Obeid, H
Hayes, D
Chen, M
Li, M
Parker, M
Rodriguez, D
Frick, K
Sengupta, R
Walker, J
2023

The changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of comprehensively considering its impacts and considering changes over time. Most COVID-19 related research addresses narrowly focused research questions and is therefore limited in addressing the complexities created by the interrelated impacts of the pandemic. Such research generally makes use of only one of either (1) actively collected data such as surveys, or (2) passively collected data from sources such as mobile phones or financial transactions. So far, only one other study collects both active and passive...

Marked Crosswalks, Station Area Built Environments, and Transit Ridership: Associations Between Changes in 877 US TOD Stations, 2010–2018

Li, M
Rodriguez, D
2024
Transit ridership across the US has experienced a decline over the past decade. Researchers, policy-makers and advocates have suggested that transportation and land use policies be modified to encourage transit-friendly environments. Despite the importance of studying the relationship between built environment and transit use, previous research on this topic exhibits several limitations in terms of scope, resolution and robustness of research design, due to availability of built environment and ridership data. Using a historical marked crosswalk dataset generated from Google Street View along...

Early Pandemic Behaviors and the Role of Vaccines in Reversing Pandemic Mobility Trends: Evidence from a US Panel

Obeid, H
Anderson, M
Bouzaghrane, MA
Li, M
Parker, M
Hayes, D
Frick, K
Rodriguez, D
Chatman, D
Sengupta, R
Walker, J
2024
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel behavior and resulted in the emergence of new mobility trends. In this paper, we study the degree to which vaccines played a role in reversing pandemic-induced travel behaviors and contributed to a “return to normal.” Using five waves of original U.S.-based survey data combined with passive smartphone tracking data collected in 2020 and 2021, we show that in the early phases of the pandemic, the behavioral response of people in the United States was heterogeneous: individuals with low levels of concern about being infected with COVID-19 engaged in...

Rail Transit Ridership Changes and COVID-19: Lessons from Station-Area Characteristics

Li, M
Rodriguez, DA
Pike, S
McNally, M
2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on public transit ridership in the United States, especially for rail transit. Land use, development density, and the pedestrian environment are strongly associated with station-level transit ridership. This study examines how these characteristics affect transit ridership pre- and post-COVID and how they differ across station types based on longitudinal data for 242 rail stations belonging to Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, Sacramento Regional Transit, and LA Metro between 2019 and 2021. We found...

Decline of Rail Transit Requires New Strategies

Rodriguez, D
Pike, S
McNally, M
Li, M
2024

During the pandemic, California’s four major rail systems— Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT), and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro)—experienced an average ridership decline of 72 percent between 2019 and 2021. BART had the greatest decrease (87 percent) and MTS the lowest (47 percent). However, ridership changes varied significantly across individual stations, with stations located in the central business district or at the end of lines having the highest ridership losses. Land...

Planning and Accommodating the Micromobility Revolution and Its Impact on Public Health

Quistberg, Alex
Rodriguez, Daniel
2024

Micromobility has grown immensely over the past decade, encompassing both public shared systems and private ownership, and, as Burford et al. have found, a surge in user injuries and deaths has accompanied the growth. Micromobility refers to the use of small vehicles, such as bicycles and scooters, that are either human powered or electric. These vehicles are ideal for short trips—although electric-powered micromobility has expanded the potential distance range.