New metro system and active travel: A natural experiment

Sun, Guibo; Zhao, Jianting; Webster, Chris; Lin, Hui

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.105605

Cited by 33 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…They found that the disruption has a significant influence on the structure, connectivity, and attributes of the bike sharing mobility network, exhibiting a heterogeneous distribution over space of the observed changes. The addition of a new transport facility, like a metro line or metro system ( Gu et al, 2019 ; Sun et al, 2020 ), also has an impact on the existing bike sharing program, whether they inter-enhance or inter-replace each other. Given the differences of gender, age, and trip purpose in travel mode choice, it's worth noting that there are different sensitivities of the above attributes on the bike sharing systems change.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A long-term perspective on the COVID-19: The bike sharing system resilience under the epidemic environment

Zhang

Zhu

2022

Journal of Transport & Health

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A long-term perspective on the COVID-19: The bike sharing system resilience under the epidemic environment

Zhang

Zhu

2022

Journal of Transport & Health

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“…Although the natural experiment research design is insightful, this type of large-scale study may encounter financial and time constraints due to the high risk of postponements and other uncertainties during the infrastructure modifications. 7 In our case, the schedule of opening the new metro had been postponed a year, with the new line being rearranged to two phases, and it would need another year to open the second phase. The postponed time could be a severe challenge to the follow-up survey, for example, a low retention ratio that would jeopardise the explanatory power of the study results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…what works and how it works; the public transport system changes are usually out of researchers' control. 7 A natural experiment can use public transport changes that 'naturally occurred', such as a new bus route, to examine health effects among older people. 8 Studies are emerging in using built environment changes as public health interventions.…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More importantly, most natural experiment studies were in low-density cities. 7 We present a natural experiment study of metro and elderly health in Hong Kong to investigate the plausible effects of the new metro and the associated changes in the built environment on public transport use, physical activity and wider health outcomes among older people. Our aim is not to evaluate the new metro against a comprehensive set of health outcomes, but rather to use the opportunity presented by this natural experiment to investigate a more specific set of research questions linking associated changes in built environment with changes in public transport use, physical activity and wider health outcomes among older people in high-density cities.…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Metro and elderly health in Hong Kong: protocol for a natural experiment study in a high-density city

Sun

et al. 2021

BMJ Open

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IntroductionPublic transport accessible to older people may offer a transformative solution to achieving healthy ageing. However, the evidence to support such transport infrastructure modifications is unclear. Previous studies on public transport use and elderly health were mostly observational studies using cross-sectional data. Few studies have examined the before-and-after effects of a new metro, for example, to see if it leads to improved elderly health.Methods and analysisWe use a new metro line in Hong Kong as a natural experiment to examine the impact of the metro-led public transport intervention on elderly health. In Hong Kong, more than 90% of daily travels are made by public transport. The public transport modifications consist of the new metro line with eight stations and changes in the walking environment and bus services around the stations. We will look at the before-and-after differences in public transport use and health outcomes between elderly participants living in treatment neighbourhoods (400 m walking buffered areas of the new metro stations) and in control groups (living in comparable areas but unaffected by the new metro). Questionnaire-based baseline data were collected in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, while some qualitative interviews are ongoing. Amid the pandemic, we conducted a quick telephone-based survey of COVID-19’s potential impact on public transport use behaviours of our elderly cohort in September 2020. Note there is no lockdown in Hong Kong until the writing of the paper (January 2021). After the new metro opens, we will conduct a follow-up survey, tentatively in late 2022. We aim to investigate if the new metro and the associated changes in the built environment have any effects on public transport use behaviours, physical activity and wider health outcomes among the elderly (eg, social inclusion, quality of life, subjective well-being).Ethics and disseminationThe Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong reviewed and approved the study procedures and materials (reference number: EA1710040). Results will be communicated through scientific papers and research reports.

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“…Previous literature has shown a strong connection between the urban physical environment and various health behaviours of its citizens (Naik et al 2014;Helbich et al 2019;Svoray et al 2018;McMichael 2000;Lopez and Hynes 2006;Leslie and Cerin 2008;Leon 2008;Sun et al 2020). As such, researchers in epidemiology, psychology, and geography have increasingly examined the effects of the built environment on various health outcomes (Ulrich 1979(Ulrich , 1984Abraham, Sommerhalder, and Abel 2010;Kaplan 1995;Hartig et al 2014;Subiza-Pérez, Vozmediano, and San Juan 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of urban physical environment sensing using street view imagery in public health studies

et al. 2020

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Urban physical environments are the physical settings and built environments in neighbourhoods and cities which provide places for human activities. Evidence suggests that there are substantial associations between urban physical environments and various health outcomes, e.g. people's physical activities might be influenced by surrounding physical environments, thereby affecting their health behaviours; more exposure to urban physical environments may benefit human mental health. Street view imagery enables us to capture the landscape at eye-level, making it a promising data source for observing and analysing the realistic dynamics of urban physical environments. Compared with traditional in-person assessments and field observations, street view imagery-based data collection is relatively time-effective and cost-effective. Researchers from epidemiology, psychology, and geography have used street view imagery to quantify the built environment and understand its impacts on public health. To summarize current research trends, this paper systematically reviews the use of street view images for sensing urban environments in public health studies. Specifically, we describe the characteristics of street view imagery and review the methodology for image processing and semantic understanding. We then summarize the challenges that remain for quantifying urban environments in terms of data and methodology. Several future research directions that would benefit public health research and practices are recommended in urban environment research.

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New metro system and active travel: A natural experiment

Cited by 33 publications

References 34 publications

A long-term perspective on the COVID-19: The bike sharing system resilience under the epidemic environment

A long-term perspective on the COVID-19: The bike sharing system resilience under the epidemic environment

Metro and elderly health in Hong Kong: protocol for a natural experiment study in a high-density city

A review of urban physical environment sensing using street view imagery in public health studies

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