Abstract
BackgroundPhysical activity is an important determinant of health. Walking is the most common physical activity performed by adults and the presence of sidewalks along roads is a determinant of walking. Geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to measure sidewalks; however, GIS sidewalk data are difficult to access. The purpose of this study was to present a new GIS method for measuring the distance and coverage of sidewalks along roadways.MethodsThe new method contains three stages. Stage 1 involves calculating the distance of all road segments within the region of interest (e.g., neighborhood), extracting geospatial information on these road segments, and saving this information as a Google Earth file. This stage was performed in ArcGIS software. Stage 2 involves opening the extracted road segment geospatial data in Google Earth, visually examining road segments to see if they contain sidewalks, and deleting road segments without sidewalks. Stage 3 involves importing the modified road geospatial data into ArcGIS and calculating the length of road segments with sidewalks. The new method was tested in 315 sites across Canada. Each site consisted of a one km radius circular buffer surrounding a school.ResultsA detailed, step-by-step protocol is provided in the paper. The length of road segments with sidewalks in the testing sites ranged from 0.00 to 55.05 km (median 16.20 km). When expressed relative to the length of all road segments, the length of road segments with sidewalks ranged from 0% to 100% (median 53%). By comparison to urban testing sites, rural sites had shorter sidewalk lengths and a smaller proportion of the roads had sidewalk coverage.ConclusionThis study provides a new GIS protocol that researchers can use to measure the distance and coverage of sidewalks along roadways.
Highlights
Physical activity is an important determinant of health
Stage 1 involves calculating the distance of all road segments within the region of interest, extracting geospatial information on these road segments, and saving this information as a Google Earth file
Stage 2 involves opening the extracted road segment geospatial data in Google Earth, visually examining each road segment in aerial and street view images to see if sidewalks are present on either sides of the road for each road segment, and manually deleting any road segments that do not have a sidewalk on at least one side from the road segment geospatial data
Summary
Walking is the most common physical activity performed by adults and the presence of sidewalks along roads is a determinant of walking. The purpose of this study was to present a new GIS method for measuring the distance and coverage of sidewalks along roadways. Walking is the most common physical activity [1]. In an effort to increase the physical activity and active transportation rates in the population, researchers have been studying the determinants of these behaviors. One such determinant is the walkability of neighborhoods and communities [5,7,8,9,10,11]. Factors affecting walkability rates within several communities that participated in California’s safe routes to school intervention [16]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
