Daily Walking among Commuters: A Cross-Sectional Study of Associations with Residential, Work, and Regional Accessibility in Melbourne, Australia (2012–2014)

Abstract

Background:Most research on walking for transport has focused on the walkability of residential neighborhoods, overlooking the contribution of places of work/study and the ease with which destinations outside the immediate neighborhood can be accessed, referred to as regional accessibility.Objectives:We aimed to examine if local accessibility/walkability around place of work/study and regional accessibility are independently and interactively associated with walking.Methods:A sample of 4,913 adult commuters was derived from a household travel survey in Melbourne, Australia (2012–2014). Local accessibility was measured as the availability of destinations within an 800-m pedestrian network from homes and places of work/education using a local living index [LLI; 0–3 (low), 4–6, 7–9, and 10–12 (high) destinations]. Regional accessibility was estimated using employment opportunity, commute travel time by mode, and public transport accessibility. Every individual’s potential minutes of walking for each level of exposure (observed and counter to fact) were predicted using multivariable regression models including confounders and interaction terms. For each contrast of exposure levels of interest, the corresponding within-individual differences in predicted walking were averaged across individuals to estimate marginal effects.Results:High LLI at home and work/education was associated with more minutes walking than low LLI by 3.9 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.3, 5.5] and 8.3 (95% CI: 7.3, 9.3) min, respectively, in mutually adjusted models. Across regional accessibility measures, an independent association with walking and an interactive association with LLI at work/education was observed. To take one example, the regional accessibility measure of “Jobs within 30 min by public transport” was associated with 4.3 (95% CI: 2.9, 5.7) more mins walking for high (≥30,000 jobs) compared with low (<4,000 jobs) accessibility in adjusted models. The estimated difference for high vs. low LLI (work/education) (among those with low regional accessibility) was 3.6 min (95% CI: 2.3, 4.8), while the difference for high vs. low regional accessibility (among those with low LLI) was negligible (−0.01; 95% CI: −1.2, 1.2). However, the combined effect estimate for high LLI and high regional accessibility, compared with low on both, was 12.8 min (95% CI: 11.1, 14.5), or 9.3 (95% CI: 6.7, 11.8) min/d walking more than expected based on the separate effect estimates.Conclusions:High local living (work/education) and regional accessibility, regardless of the regional accessibility measure used, are positively associated with physical activity. High exposure to both is associated with greater benefit than exposure to one or the other alone. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3395

Correlates and determinants of transport-related physical activity among adults: an interdisciplinary systematic review

“…Conversely, a positive relationship between age and TRPA was observed among only three studies, in which women of lower socio-economic status [ 34 , 41 , 47 ] reported greater TRPA levels with higher age. Twenty-four studies found there to be no significant association between age and TRPA level [ 14 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 35 , 40 , 45 , 50 , 52 – 54 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 67 – 69 , 72 , 78 , 82 , 88 , 92 – 94 ].…”

“…Nine articles reported male participants undertaking a greater amount of TRPA than women (three assessed walking and cycling combined into a single measure of TRPA [ 29 , 66 , 67 ], two walking only [ 52 , 87 ], and four presented walking and cycling for commute separately [ 47 , 57 , 69 , 72 ]).Of these, two studies reported that men were more likely to cycle for active transport compared to women [ 57 , 69 ]. Dissimilarly, three studies found women had a higher probability of engaging in TRPA and a greater likelihood of high levels of active transport [ 46 , 53 , 74 ]; 21 studies observed no association to be present [ 14 , 30 , 32 – 35 , 40 , 45 , 50 , 54 , 56 , 58 , 59 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 75 , 78 , 92 – 94 ].…”

“…While race or ethnicity was modelled as a covariate among many studies, fourteen articles examined its direct relationship with TRPA outcomes and only five [ 14 , 47 , 72 , 79 , 92 ] showed statistically significant associations, nine found no significant association [ 32 , 35 , 41 , 46 , 54 , 59 , 72 , 75 , 94 ]. Those who were non-white were more likely to undertake higher levels of TRPA [ 14 , 47 ] than those who were white.…”

“…Of the ten studies that considered marital status, four [ 29 , 46 , 53 , 78 ] found that married and partnered individuals were less likely to engage in TRPA (for one study [ 53 ], in male participants only) than single people. A fifth study conversely found married individuals to have higher odds of undertaking TRPA [ 30 ] than singles, while seven studies showed no significant association [ 32 , 35 , 41 , 45 , 52 , 57 , 59 ]. An inverse association between the number of children/dependents in the household and the levels of TRPA was observed in two [ 30 , 35 ] of seven studies.…”

Not gendered… but different from each other? A structural equation model for explaining risky road behaviors of female and male pedestrians

“…During the last decades, when transportation dynamics have been experiencing several transformations, walking has been systematically promoted as a cheap (Audrey et al, 2014), sustainable (Grant, Machaczek, Pollard & Allmark) and healthy (Hanson and Jones, 2015) means for performing short and mid-length tripsor parts of them -for daily commuting (Barr et al, 2019;Oja et al, 1998). Indeed, many organizational and educational stakeholders have been recently promoting "active commuting" (i.e., using non-motorized transportation means such as walking or cycling) for commuting trips, as a way of encouraging their employees/students to improve their lifestyle and health outcomes (Barranco-Ruiz et al, 2019;Page and Nilsson, 2017;Yang et al, 2012).…”