mmuting to School: An Observational Evaluation in Five US Communities. J Phys Act Health. Epublished.
- We assessed changes in transit-associated walking in the United States from 2001 to 2009 and documented their importance to public health.
- We examined transit walk times using the National Household Travel Survey, a telephone survey administered by the US Department of Transportation to examine travel behavior in the United States.
- People are more likely to transit walk if they are from lower income households, are non-White, and live in large urban areas with access to rail systems. Transit walkers in large urban areas with a rail system were 72% more likely to transit walk 30 minutes or more per day than were those without a rail system. From 2001 to 2009, the estimated number of transit walkers rose from 7.5 million to 9.6 million (a 28% increase); those whose transit-associated walking time was 30 minutes or more increased from approximately 2.6 million to 3.4 million (a 31% increase).
- Transit walking contributes to meeting physical activity recommendations. Study results may contribute to transportation-related health impact assessment studies evaluating the impact of proposed transit systems on physical activity, potentially influencing transportation planning decisions.
Freeland AL, Banerjee SN, Dannenberg AL, Wendel AM. (2013). Walking associated with public transit: moving toward increased physical activity in the United States. Am J Public Health, 103(3), 536-542. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300912.
- This study developed and tested an algorithm to classify accelerometer data as walking or non-walking using either GPS or travel diary data within a large sample of adults under free-living conditions.
- Participants wore an accelerometer and a GPS unit, and concurrently completed a travel diary for 7 consecutive days. Physical activity (PA) bouts were identified using accelerometry count sequences. PA bouts were then classified as walking or non-walking based on a decision-tree algorithm consisting of 