Characteristics of the built environment on GPS-determined bicycle routes used by adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of the routes used for cycling according to gender on a sample of adolescents from the city of Curitiba, Brazil. The study was conducted in 2013 with 147 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, who wore accelerometer and Global Positioning System receivers to assess physical activity and geographic locations. A total of 38 participants (50.0% girls) presented at least one bicycle route and were included in the analytic sample. A total of 386 routes were identified. Nearly all routes included public transportation facilities, plazas, and parcels with residential, retail, food or recreational land use (> 97.0%) while bike lanes/paths (62.7%) and Fitness Zones were less frequent (71.8%). Bus rapid transit (BRT) stations, parks and vacant lots were the least frequent feature in the routes (37.3%; 17.1%; and 7.5%, respectively). Routes used by girls had fewer vacant lots (3.9%; p = 0.001) and more residential, retail, food services, and recreational uses (99.6%; p = 0.003; 99.1%; p = 0.011; 98.7%; p = 0.030, respectively) than those used by boys. The findings suggest that the routes used by adolescents have mixed and diverse land use and girls ride along routes with greater bicycling and service infrastructure and less physical disorder than boys.