Factors Effecting Active Mode Choice in Transportation

Shaunna Kay Burbidge

University of California, Santa Barbara

Department of Geography

Agenda

• Current Trends in Transportation

• Current Trends in Public Health

• The Connection:What is “Active Living”?

• Deterrents to Active Travel

• Preliminary Results

Transportation Trends

• The Average American spends over 433 hours per year, the equivalent of 55 eight hour work days, behind the wheel

• The car population is now increasing five times faster that the human population

• Between 1977 & 1995 the number of trips the average American took on foot dropped by 21%

• Of trips one mile or less, over 50% are made by automobile

Public Health Trends

• In 2004 the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized excess weight as one of the top five health problems in developed nations

• Over 130 million Americans are overweight (64%) 60 million are Obese (30%)

• These conditions are known to cause heart disease, diabetes, cardio vascular disease, stroke, asthma, cancer, and depression

• By 2005 obesity will pass smoking as the number one preventable killer of Americans

• In 2000 the medical costs attributed to inactivity and obesity totaled over $117 billion dollars

The Connection

• Over 200,000 deaths per year (25% of all chronic disease deaths) are attributed to lack of physical activity

• Moderate daily physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease, keeps weight under control, and improves blood cholesterol

• As little as 30 minutes of physical activity per day can lead to drastic improvements in health. (Surgeon General’s recommendation)

• Over $76 billion dollars per year in direct medical costs could be saved if all physically inactive people met current standards for regular moderate physical activity

What is “Active Living”?

Active living is a way of life that integrates physical activity into

daily routines

Active Living in Transportation

Walking• Almost everyone is capable of walking.

• It doesn’t cost a thing except calories and time

• Men who walked at a moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes per day reduced their risk of coronary heart disease (Morris & Hardman 1997)

Biking• More than 42 million Americans own bicycles

and yet currently less than 1% of trips are made by bike (NIEHS 2004)

• People who bike at least 40 km per week cut their risk of heart disease in half (Dora 1999)

Deterrents to Active Travel

• Personal External- Factors effecting mode choice in a personal way that are hard to modify (ex. Disabilities or handicaps)

• Personal Internal- Factors effecting mode choice that are controllable by policy or persuasion (ex. Attitudes, opinions, or values held by individuals)

• Environmental External- Environmental factors that are not easily controlled by policy or persuasion (ex. Topography, climate, and distance)

• Environmental Internal- Environmental factors that can be controlled by policy and persuasion (ex. Community design, densities, mixed uses, etc.)

Personal InternalAttitudes are a learned predisposition to respond in a

consistently favorable or unfavorable way towards a given object, person, or event

• Travel Time- people rule out active modes due to the “time factor”

• Personal Safety- if people don’t feel safe walking/biking they won’t

• Quality Facilities- if they don’t exist active travel won’t happen

Environmental External

• Topography- varied topography = more work (determination)

• Climate- 90% of individuals consider poor weather a deterrent

• Distance- most frequently sited reason for not traveling actively

Thresholds for Active Modes:

Walking = 1.43 miles Biking = 5.78 miles

Average Distances for Active Modes:

Walking = 0.59 miles Biking = 2.01 miles

Environmental Internal

• Zoning- separates land uses-often blamed for sprawl

• Residential Density- higher Densities promote active travel

• Mixed Uses- living closer to various activities encourages active travel

• Preliminary Questions

• Are people really as inactive as other studies claim?

• What types of trips are people most likely to take using active means?

• What factors play a role in influencing the decision to travel actively?

• What kinds of people are most likely to travel actively?

• Data Source

• “CentreSim” 2 day fully annotated activity diaries

• Data gathered by researchers at the Pennsylvania Institute of Transportation at the Pennsylvania State University

My Research

Activity Levels of Sample

• Level 1- Extremely active individuals that schedule daily exercise and walk or bike frequently (1.2%)

• Level 2- Active individuals that schedule exercise intermittently and walk or bike regularly (3%)

• Level 3- Moderately active individuals that don’t schedule exercise but walk or bike occasionally (6.4%)

• Level 4- Inactive individuals who are generally sedentary and rarely walk or bike (89.4%)

• Level 5- Captive Sedentary individuals who cannot be active due to personal or physical limitations (not defined in this research)

Only 6.65% of the individuals studied made any trips using an active mode

Preliminary Results

Trip purpose and mode choice:

Active modes are utilized most frequently for recreation (27.9%), travel to work (22.0%) and travel to school (42.2 %)

Factors influencing Active Mode choice:

Mean age for active travelers is three years younger than the general population-mode age is 29 years younger

There are distance thresholds for active travel Bike = 5.78 Miles Walk = 1.43 Miles

Active travelers cluster within demographic profiles

Preliminary Results Cont…..

Questions?