Transport-related walking among young adults: when and why?

Abstract

Background: The existing smartphones' technology allows for the objective measurement of a person's movements at a fine-grained level of geographic and temporal detail, and in doing so, it mitigates the issues associated with self-report biases and lack of spatial details. This study proposes and evaluates the advantages of using a smartphone app for collecting accurate, fine-grained, and objective data on people's transport-related walking.Methods: A sample of 142 participants (mostly young adults) was recruited in a large Australian university, for whom the app recorded all their travel activities over two weekdays during August-September 2014. We identified eight main activity nodes which operate as transport-related walking generators. We explored the participants' transport-related walking patterns around and between these activity nodes through the use of di-graphs to better understand patterns of incidental physical activity and opportunities for intervention to increase incidental walking. Results: We found that the educational nodein other samples may be represented by the workplaceis as important as the residential node for generating walking trips. We also found that the likelihood of transportrelated walking trips is larger during the daytime, whereas at night time walking trips tend to be longer. We also showed that patterns of transport-related walking relate to the presence of 'chaining' trips in the afternoon period. Conclusions:The findings of this study show how the proposed data collection and analytic approach can inform urban design to enhance walkability at locations that are likely to generate walking trips. This study's insights can help to shape public education and awareness campaigns that aim to encourage walking trips throughout the day by suggesting locations and times of the day when engaging in these forms of exercise is easiest and least intrusive.

Effects of public transportation use on non-exercise activity thermogenesis and health promotion: a mini-review

“…One significant pathway is active commuting, where individuals walk or cycle to access transit stops by incorporating exercise into their daily travel routine [ 40 - 42 ]. Moreover, PT often involves incidental walking during transfers or access to final destinations, contributing to an increase in daily step count, total EE, and overall PA accumulation [ 18 , 24 , 43 , 44 ]. These findings underscore the potential of PT systems as catalysts for increasing the population level of PA [ 18 , 24 , 43 , 44 ].…”

“…Moreover, PT often involves incidental walking during transfers or access to final destinations, contributing to an increase in daily step count, total EE, and overall PA accumulation [ 18 , 24 , 43 , 44 ]. These findings underscore the potential of PT systems as catalysts for increasing the population level of PA [ 18 , 24 , 43 , 44 ]. Moreover, frequent PT users are more likely to meet the recommended PA guidelines, leading to various health benefits, including improved cardiovascular (CV) fitness, weight management, and mental well-being [ 15 - 23 ].…”