Neighborhood Walkability and Active Travel (Walking and Cycling) in New York City

Abstract

Urban planners have suggested that built environment characteristics can support active travel (walking and cycling) and reduce sedentary behavior. This study assessed whether engagement in active travel is associated with neighborhood walkability measured for zip codes in New York City. Data were analyzed on engagement in active travel and the frequency of walking or biking ten blocks or more in the past month, from 8,064 respondents to the New York City 2003 Community Health Survey (CHS). A neighborhood walkability scale that measures: residential, intersection, and subway stop density; land use mix; and the ratio of retail building floor area to retail land area was calculated for each zip code. Data were analyzed using zero-inflated negative binomial regression incorporating survey sample weights and adjusting for respondents' sociodemographic characteristics. Overall, 44 % of respondents reported no episodes of active travel and among those who reported any episode, the mean number was 43.2 episodes per month. Comparing the 75th to the 25th percentile of zip code walkability, the odds ratio for reporting zero episodes of active travel was 0.71 (95 % CI 0.61, 0.83) and the exponentiated beta coefficient for the count of episodes of active travel was 1.13 (95 % CI 1.06, 1.21). Associations between lower walkability and reporting zero episodes of active travel were significantly stronger for non-Hispanic Whites as compared to non-Hispanic Blacks and to Hispanics and for those living in higher income zip codes. The results suggest that neighborhood walkability is associated with higher engagement in active travel.

Active commuting of the inhabitants of Liberec city in low and high walkability areas

“…Our findings are in line with those of other research studies Freeman et al, 2013;Grasser, Van Dyck, Titze, & Stronegger, 2013), which confirmed that higher territorial walkability increases the AC of the inhabitants. The average proportion of AC among the inhabitants of Liberec city (17%) is low compared with a study of Swedish adults (22.2%), which included a total of 16,705 individuals aged 18-80 years (Lindström, 2008).…”

“…The proportion of active and passive commuting by education towards the outskirts). This is consistent with the findings and results gathered in other studies (Christiansen, Madsen, Schipperijn, Ersbøll, & Troelsen, 2014;De Meester et al, 2012;Frank et al, 2010;Freeman et al, 2013). Adams et al (2014) concluded that areas with high walkability are characterized by an accumulation of a large number of inhabitants and higher commuting accessibility (e.g., Hong Kong or Bogota in Colombia).…”

Neighborhood Disorder and Physical Activity among Older Adults: A Longitudinal Study

“…In this measure, the total walkability score is the sum of zscores of five measures derived from urban planning literature: (1) residential population density, (2) land use mix, (3) intersection density, (4) retail floor area ratio, and (5) subway stop density. This measure has previously been shown to predict BMI [33], engagement in active transport [34], and total physical activity as recorded by accelerometer [35].…”

The Spatial Variations of Relationship between Built Environment and Pedestrian Volume: Focused on the 2009 Seoul Pedestrian Flow Survey in Korea

“…In addition, many previous studies focus on relatively low-density suburban contexts in Western countries, except for a few studies that have focused on a highdensity built environment such as New York City (Freeman et al, 2013;Lovasi et al, 2012). Some studies have stated that the relationships between the built environment and walking activity are complicated due to spatial heterogeneity, self-selection issues such as attitudes and perceptions on walking behavior, and methodological differences (Chatman, 2009;Feuillet et .…”