School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior

The most common form of physical activity for people of all ages is walking, thus the use of active travel modes, such as walking or cycling for school trips, can increase daily physical activity levels. School travel is one way to encourage walking and cycling on a daily basis. Much of the recent l...

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Main Authors: Kristian Larsen, Ron N Buliung, Guy EJ Faulkner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Minnesota 2015-07-01
Series:Journal of Transport and Land Use
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/782
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author Kristian Larsen
Ron N Buliung
Guy EJ Faulkner
author_facet Kristian Larsen
Ron N Buliung
Guy EJ Faulkner
author_sort Kristian Larsen
collection DOAJ
description The most common form of physical activity for people of all ages is walking, thus the use of active travel modes, such as walking or cycling for school trips, can increase daily physical activity levels. School travel is one way to encourage walking and cycling on a daily basis. Much of the recent literature reports inconsistent results pertaining to how the built environment may relate to active school travel. To date, there is no consistent approach toward conceptualizing the “environment” for its measurement, and this may be partially to blame for the inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine how characteristics of the built environment might relate to mode of school travel, while testing how measurement of the environment may influence the results in terms of the shortest path or respondent reported route mapping. The results indicate that model parameter estimates vary when using these two route measurement methods. Differences in the conceptualization and measurement of the school travel environment could carry forward into misguided planning or policy interventions targeting environmental features that may actually have no influence on school travel decisions.
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spelling doaj.art-34204917101943ec94e29c06cfda0b0f2022-12-21T20:02:34ZengUniversity of MinnesotaJournal of Transport and Land Use1938-78492015-07-019210.5198/jtlu.2015.782School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behaviorKristian Larsen0Ron N Buliung1Guy EJ Faulkner2University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto MississaugaUniversity of TorontoThe most common form of physical activity for people of all ages is walking, thus the use of active travel modes, such as walking or cycling for school trips, can increase daily physical activity levels. School travel is one way to encourage walking and cycling on a daily basis. Much of the recent literature reports inconsistent results pertaining to how the built environment may relate to active school travel. To date, there is no consistent approach toward conceptualizing the “environment” for its measurement, and this may be partially to blame for the inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine how characteristics of the built environment might relate to mode of school travel, while testing how measurement of the environment may influence the results in terms of the shortest path or respondent reported route mapping. The results indicate that model parameter estimates vary when using these two route measurement methods. Differences in the conceptualization and measurement of the school travel environment could carry forward into misguided planning or policy interventions targeting environmental features that may actually have no influence on school travel decisions.https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/782School travelGISphysical activitybuilt environmentmeasurement issues
spellingShingle Kristian Larsen
Ron N Buliung
Guy EJ Faulkner
School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
Journal of Transport and Land Use
School travel
GIS
physical activity
built environment
measurement issues
title School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
title_full School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
title_fullStr School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
title_full_unstemmed School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
title_short School travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children’s school travel behavior
title_sort school travel route measurement and built environment effects in models of children s school travel behavior
topic School travel
GIS
physical activity
built environment
measurement issues
url https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/782
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AT guyejfaulkner schooltravelroutemeasurementandbuiltenvironmenteffectsinmodelsofchildrensschooltravelbehavior