Municipal investment in off-road trails and changes in bicycle commuting in Minneapolis, Minnesota over 10 years: a longitudinal repeated cross-sectional study

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Marc Peterson¹  Daniel A. Rodriguez²  Le Zhang³  Jana A. Hirsch⁴  Katie A. Meyer⁵  Penny Gordon-Larsen⁶ 

[1] Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Department of City & Regional Planning, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA;Department of City & Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;New York City Department of City Planning, New York, NY, USA;Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, 915 Greene Street, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA;Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 West Franklin Street, 27516, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 West Franklin Street, 27516, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;

关键词: Bicycle commuting;    Greenway;    Built Environment;    Physical Activity;    Urban Planning;    Urban Population;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12966-017-0475-1

 received in 2016-07-02, accepted in 2017-01-31,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWe studied the effect of key development and expansion of an off-road multipurpose trail system in Minneapolis, Minnesota between 2000 and 2007 to understand whether infrastructure investments are associated with increases in commuting by bicycle.MethodsWe used repeated measures regression on tract-level (N = 116 tracts) data to examine changes in bicycle commuting between 2000 and 2008–2012. We investigated: 1) trail proximity measured as distance from the trail system and 2) trail potential use measured as the proportion of commuting trips to destinations that might traverse the trail system. All analyses (performed 2015–2016) adjusted for tract-level sociodemographic covariates and contemporaneous cycling infrastructure changes (e.g., bicycle lanes).ResultsTracts that were both closer to the new trail system and had a higher proportion of trips to destinations across the trail system experienced greater 10-year increases in commuting by bicycle.ConclusionsProximity to off-road infrastructure and travel patterns are relevant to increased bicycle commuting, an important contributor to overall physical activity. Municipal investment in bicycle facilities, especially off-road trails that connect a city’s population and its employment centers, is likely to lead to increases in commuting by bicycle.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017