Safe Walking Routes Research Articles

Built environment and childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity, an escalating global health challenge, is intricately linked to the built environment in which children live, learn, and play. This review and perspective examined the multifaceted relationship between the built environment and childhood obesity, offering insights into potential interventions for prevention. Factors such as urbanization, access to unhealthy food options, sedentary behaviors, and socioeconomic disparities are critical contributors to this complex epidemic. Built environment encompasses the human-modified spaces such as homes, schools, workplaces, and urban areas. These settings can influence children's physical activity levels, dietary habits, and overall health. The built environment can be modified to prevent childhood obesity by enhancing active transportation through the development of safe walking and cycling routes, creating accessible and inviting green spaces and play areas, and promoting healthy food environments by regulating fast-food outlet density. School design is another area for intervention, with a focus on integrating outdoor spaces and facilities that promote physical activity and healthy eating. Community engagement and education in reinforcing healthy behaviors is necessary, alongside the potential of technology and innovation in encouraging physical activity among children. Policy and legislative support are crucial for sustaining these efforts. In conclusion, addressing the built environment in the fight against childhood obesity requires the need for a comprehensive, multipronged approach that leverages the built environment as a tool for promoting healthier lifestyles among children, ultimately paving the way for a healthier, more active future generation.

Evaluating Attitudes and Preferences towards Walking in Two European Cities

Evaluating Attitudes and Preferences towards Walking in Two European Cities

Developing child-friendly cities: Young children’s participation in urban planning

This article is based on a collaborative project between a municipality and a research team, aiming to investigate participatory methods that promote young children’s interest and participation in, and access to express their views in connection with, urban planning processes. The research question was: What characterizes a child-friendly city for young children and their families? The article is framed within the perspective of children’s rights, affordance and child-friendly outdoor environments. The project has employed multiple research methods. The participants were children (aged 3-6) and parents from three early childhood education and care institutions. The children (n=16) participated in guided tours, field conversations, drawing and constructive play using Lego. The parents (n=14) participated by identifying the locations that they preferred to frequent with their children, and a structured survey was used to identify what the parents liked and disliked about the places they identified. Our findings indicate that there are four important features that characterise a child-friendly city: 1) The availability of ‘green lungs’, 2) Creative and challenging play opportunities, 3) Places for the whole family, and 4) Safe playgrounds and walking routes. We discuss how better knowledge of what characterizes a child-friendly city can contribute to planning processes.

Changes in walking practice and associated factors during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has induced many lifestyle changes, with reductions in healthy activities, including walking. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify strategies to maintain good health during a pandemic. Demographics, walking habits, health behaviors, health status, recognition of social capital, and changes in walking practice of 800 residents were evaluated using a structured questionnaire. Among the participants, 73.9%, 15.8%, and 10.4% reported no change, a decrease, and an increase in walking practice, respectively. Individuals in their 50 s and 60 s showed 6.388- and 5.054-times greater increases in walking, respectively, than did those aged 19–29 years. Walking increased more among high-income people than among low-income people. Additionally, walking practice increased in people participating in social gatherings, those with pets that needed walks, those with a COVID-19 history, those who considered walking as both a habitual and leisure activity, those with nearly no stress, and those satisfied with their safety, the natural environment, and public transportation; other health behaviors or conditions were not related to an increase in walking practice. To maintain good health during a pandemic, walking practice should be promoted in people in their 20 s and low-income groups. Moreover, people should be encouraged to attend meetings, including online interaction, and safe walking routes should be created within the community. Walking should be encouraged as a method of relieving stress, and the benefits of walking for recovery after an infectious disease should be emphasized. Furthermore, the direct effects of walking should be studied.

WTP5.10 Developing Walking Routes to Encourage Post-Surgical Mobilisation in Hospital, and Assessment of Patient Satisfaction

Abstract Aims Physical activity soon after surgery contributes to earlier discharge and better outcomes. However, patients often feel anxious to leave their ward and walk around. This project aimed to develop walking routes for patients in order to reduce this anxiety and encourage people to walk post-surgery. Once developed, we evaluated patients' views. Methods In a large hospital with five separate wings, we created a multi-professional team to advise on development. Safe walking routes were measured, timed, photographed and assessed for interest. We then produced a walking routes website, informed by multi-professional opinion, for use by patients from 21 surgical wards. This website was accessible to patients at the bedside, via a QR code scanned on their mobile phone. An electronic questionnaire on the website was used to assess patient satisfaction with the new resource. Results The majority of respondents (69.2%) felt that the walking routes website lead to them being more active during their admission (n=13). Respondents also felt that the website provided them with enjoyment, benefitted their mental health and made them feel more informed and involved in their recovery. Respondents felt their experience of the walking routes website would be improved by access to the website earlier in their hospital stay. Conclusion Despite the small sample size, this evaluation suggests the walking routes website has the potential to be a useful tool for surgical patients to increase early postoperative mobilisation, and improve patient hospital experiences.

Unpacking the concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods: disentangling “desired outcomes” from the “means” available for achieving them

PurposeAn in-depth literature review was undertaken to uncover (1) what are described as the desired outcomes for 20 minute neighbourhoods (20MNs) – the normatively based ends which planners, architects and decision-makers want 20MNs to achieve; (2) the means (the mechanisms, levers, triggers and causal factors) that have to be correctly assembled and lined up for 20MNs to operate as intended and (3), in order to avoid naive environmental determinism, the behavioural changes required to support the operation of 20MNs even where the required configuration of means can be achieved. The content analysis was conducted following guidelines offered by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria.Design/methodology/approachGrowing interest in the urban design concept of the “20MNs” has been greatly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been presented as a way of increasing the quality of local environments by enabling people to meet their daily needs through access to safe walking and cycling routes or by public transport. Internationally, it has captured the imagination of political decision-makers, built-environment practitioners and communities alike, as a life-affirming post-pandemic vision, held up as achieving environmental, health and economic improvements as well as reducing inequalities experienced by many. This paper's overall purpose is to separate the ends pursued in 20MNs from means available for achieving them.FindingsThe paper concludes that the ambition to see the 20MNs widely woven into existing urban, suburban and rural neighbourhoods will require significant effort to ensure all that all the component parts of, and key players in, planning's place-delivery systems are aligned and mutually supportive. Even where this can be achieved, further guidance will be needed on (1) how to operationalise the practical implementation of 20MNs and (2) how their success can be measured.Originality/valueThe originality of the paper lies in its efforts to discriminate between ends and means – between desired outcomes of 20MNs and the means available for achieving them. The significance of the paper lies here in this attempt to initiate a discussion on possible causal relationships between what is wanted and what would need to be done to achieve it. Without clarity about these relationships, misunderstanding, confusion and barriers to communication may arise across the many different organizations, stakeholder groups and actors involved. This lack of clarity could undermine trust and confidence, potentially undermining both the process and to its outcomes.

Assessing the COVID-19 outbreak effects on active mobility of men in comparison with women

ABSTRACT This study aims to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on active mobility of men and women of Shiraz, Iran, and examine the relationship between perceived built environment factors and men’s and women’s active travel before and during the outbreak. The data were obtained during the pandemic from 747 men and 518 women living in Shiraz. Data collection was conducted using a questionnaire-based survey. The multivariate regression was utilized for determining the effective factors on active travel. The results indicate that the amount of time men spend walking and cycling before and during the outbreak is more than that of women. Meanwhile, the amount of time men and women spend cycling has increased during the pandemic, which can indicate the resiliency of bikes in the crisis. A built environment with mixed, diverse, dense and accessible land uses, as well as safe and secure cycling and walking routes have major effects on citizens’ active mobility in this crisis. Also, for women who have a low rate of bicycle ownership, improving bike-sharing infrastructure is essential. Therefore, it is suggested that urban planners and policymakers take action to make the environment more people-friendly to maintain citizens’ mobility, especially women, during the pandemic.

USING MOBILE CROWD SENSING FOR SOCIAL DISTANCING REAL-TIME NAVIGATION

The study focuses on current trends in the use of smartphones and other smart devices to provide information support to users in a COVID pandemic. The perspective adaptations of mobile crowd sensing (MCS) information technologies to ensure the social distance of pedestrians while walking through the city are described. Specifics of navigation and data collection from users' smartphone’s sensors in the case of open space and in large buildings (stations, hospitals, government agencies and other social infrastructure) navigation are considered. A project approach to the creation of a mobile recommender application for a safe walking route in real time with the support of social distancing based on hybrid tourist recommender systems, mobile crowd sensing and big data analysis is proposed. The main problems and challenges presented with the implementation of such a project are outlined. Safe navigation of users in large rooms is also an increase in the urgent task. After all, even the best strict guarantees of the ban do not make it possible to determine the assessment of health care facilities, construction of social, educational, trade, transport infrastructure, etc. The main problems and stages of data extraction from the user 's device are considered, as well as the approaches to the organization of user navigation within the city are analyzed: both indoors and outdoors. The algorithm was proposed for building a safe route recommendation with mobile crowd sensing application with multi-criteria context evaluation for social distancing real-time navigation.

Examining the associations between perceived built environment and active travel, before and after the COVID-19 outbreak in Shiraz city, Iran

This study aims to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and policies to control the outbreak such as quarantine, jobs closures, and traffic restrictions on active travel of Central Businesses District (CBD) residents in comparison with the non-CBD residents of Shiraz, Iran; and examine the relationship between perceived built environment factors and active travel in the pre- and post-outbreak. The results indicate that the most effective individuals factors on active travel are bicycle and car ownership, and built environment characteristics are walkability, bikeability, security, aesthetics, traffic calming, intersections safety, land uses diversity and density, destination accessibility, street pattern, and bike-sharing infrastructures. Also, the average walking and cycling time of the CBD residents before and after the outbreak is more than that of the non-CBD residents, which is due to the quality of built environment factors in the CBD. A built environment with mixed, diverse, dense and accessible land uses, as well as safe and secure cycling and walking routes have major effects on active travel in the crisis. Hence, it is suggested that policymakers take action to make the environment more people-friendly to maintain citizens' mobility in the critical situation, when many travel modes have lost their efficiency.

Development of a wearable guide device based on convolutional neural network for blind or visually impaired persons

This study proposes a design for a wearable guide device for blind or visually impaired persons on the basis of video streaming and deep learning. This work mainly aims to provide supplementary assistance to white canes used by visually impaired persons and offer them increased freedom of movement and independence using the proposed wearable device. The considerable amount of environmental information provided by the device also ensures enhanced safety for its users. Computer vision in the proposed device uses an RGB camera instead of the RGBD camera commonly used in computer vision. Deep learning is applied to convert RGB images into depth images and calculate the plane for detecting indoor objects and safe walking routes. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is adopted, and its neural network structure, which is similar to that of the human brain, simulates a neural transmission mechanism similar to that triggered in human learning. Therefore, this system can learn a large number of feature routes and then generate a model from the learning result. The proposed system can help blind or visually impaired persons identify flat and safe walking routes.

P77 Development and Validation of a Tool to Assess Top Campus Health Priorities of College Students

BackgroundCollege campuses can provide students with a supportive environment for health behavior development. Thus, it is important to understand campus health priorities of students to ensure effective programming.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop a survey which college administrators can use to identify campus health priorities.Study Design, Setting, ParticipantsThe survey was developed as part of the larger Get Fruved project and included college community input, content experts, and college students.Measurable Outcome/AnalysisTown hall meetings provided campus health priorities of college communities. A steering committee of health behavior researchers refined the priorities. Content and face validation were conducted using cognitive interviewing methods. A convenience sample of students from 60 colleges and universities was collected to measure reliability and provide top priorities.ResultsTwenty-nine campus health priorities were compiled from the town hall meeting attendees. The steering committee modified the list and added 7 additional priorities. A write-in option was added during content validation, and face validation revealed no major changes. A pilot sample (n = 8215) took the final 31-item survey which provided high reliability (α = 0.93). The priority rated most important regardless of school geographic region, type, setting, or size was that free water should be available in all campus facilities. Other top campus health priorities included safe and accessible walking and biking routes, equal pricing for healthful foods, and more available healthful food options. Among the least important priority was to require first-year and transfer students to take a wellness course.ConclusionsThis process provided a tool that was well developed and validated for college campuses to use to improve health promotion activities. Because free water availability was deemed the most important priority regardless of school characteristic, additional exploration is warranted to understand why and what improvements college campuses can make. College campuses can provide students with a supportive environment for health behavior development. Thus, it is important to understand campus health priorities of students to ensure effective programming. The purpose of this study was to develop a survey which college administrators can use to identify campus health priorities. The survey was developed as part of the larger Get Fruved project and included college community input, content experts, and college students. Town hall meetings provided campus health priorities of college communities. A steering committee of health behavior researchers refined the priorities. Content and face validation were conducted using cognitive interviewing methods. A convenience sample of students from 60 colleges and universities was collected to measure reliability and provide top priorities. Twenty-nine campus health priorities were compiled from the town hall meeting attendees. The steering committee modified the list and added 7 additional priorities. A write-in option was added during content validation, and face validation revealed no major changes. A pilot sample (n = 8215) took the final 31-item survey which provided high reliability (α = 0.93). The priority rated most important regardless of school geographic region, type, setting, or size was that free water should be available in all campus facilities. Other top campus health priorities included safe and accessible walking and biking routes, equal pricing for healthful foods, and more available healthful food options. Among the least important priority was to require first-year and transfer students to take a wellness course. This process provided a tool that was well developed and validated for college campuses to use to improve health promotion activities. Because free water availability was deemed the most important priority regardless of school characteristic, additional exploration is warranted to understand why and what improvements college campuses can make.

A Conceptual Framework for Modelling Safe Walking and Cycling Routes to High Schools.

Active transport to or from school presents an opportunity for adolescents to engage in daily physical activity. Multiple factors influence whether adolescents actively travel to/from school. Creating safe walking and cycling routes to school is a promising strategy to increase rates of active transport. This article presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for modelling safe walking and cycling routes to high schools. The framework has been developed based on several existing relevant frameworks including (a) ecological models, (b) the “Five Es” (engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement, and evaluation) framework of transport planning, and (c) a travel mode choice framework for school travel. The framework identifies built environment features (land use mix, pedestrian/cycling infrastructure, neighbourhood aesthetics, and accessibility to local facilities) and traffic safety factors (traffic volume and speed, safe road crossings, and quality of path surface) to be considered when modelling safe walking/cycling routes to high schools. Future research should test this framework using real-world data in different geographical settings and with a combination of tools for the assessment of both macro-scale and micro-scale built environment features. To be effective, the modelling and creation of safe routes to high schools should be complemented by other interventions, including education, enforcement, and encouragement in order to minimise safety concerns and promote active transport.

When Urban Safety Index Inference Meets Location-Based Data

Information about urban safety, e.g., the safety index of a position, is of great importance to protect humans and support safe walking route planning. Despite some research on urban safety analysis, the accuracy and granularity of safety index inference are both very limited. The problem of analyzing urban safety to predict safety index throughout a city has not been sufficiently studied and remains open. In this paper, we propose U-Safety, an urban safety analysis system to infer safety index by leveraging multiple cross-domain urban location-based data. We first extract spatially-related and temporally-related features from various urban location-based data, including urban map, housing rent and density, population, positions of police stations, point of interests (POIs), crime event records, and taxi GPS trajectories. Then, these features are fed into a novel sparse auto-encoder (SAE) framework with feature correlation constraint to obtain the final discriminative feature representation. Finally, we design a new co-training-based learning method, which consists of two separated classifiers, to calculate safety index accurately. We implement U-Safety and conduct extensive experiments by utilizing various real data sources obtained in New York City. The evaluation results demonstrate the advantages of U-Safety over other methods.

Parallel Hyper-Heuristic Algorithm for Multi-Objective Route Planning in a Smart City

Most of the commercial navigation products provide route planning service for users. However, they only consider a single metric such as distance, time, or other costs, while ignoring a critical criterion: safety. In a smart city, people may prefer to find a safe walking route to avoid the potential crime risk as well as obtain a short distance. This problem can be specified as a multi-objective optimization problem (MOOP). Many methods were proposed in the past to solve the multi-objective route planning, the multi-objective evolutionary approach (MOEA) is considered as the most popular one. However, MOEA is non-optimized when used in a large-scale road network and becomes computationally expensive when handling a large population size. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective hyper-heuristic (MOHH) framework for walking route planning in a smart city. In the search framework, we design a set of low level heuristics to generate new routes. Moreover, we adopt reinforcement learning mechanism to select good low-level heuristics to accelerate searching speed. We further improve the reinforcement learning-based multi-objective hyper-heuristic (RL-MOHH) algorithm and implement a parallel version (RL-PMOHH) on general purpose graphic process unit. Extensive experiments are conducted on the safety-index map constructed from the historical urban data of the New York city. Comprehensive experimental results show that the proposed RL-PMOHH is almost 173, 5.3, and 3.1 times faster than the exact multi-objective optimization algorithm, the RL-MOHH algorithm, and the parallel NSGA-II algorithm, respectively. Moreover, both RL-MOHH and RL-PMOHH can obtain more than 80% Pareto optimal solutions in a large-scale road network.

A layered network formulation for the safe walking route design problem

A layered network formulation for the safe walking route design problem

A Bi‐objective Optimization Model for Designing Safe Walking Routes for School Children

This study uses a mathematical optimization approach to design safe walking routes from school to home for children. Children are thought to be safer when walking together in groups rather than alone. Thus, we assume that the risk of walking along a given road segment in a group is smaller than that of walking the same segment alone. At the same time, the walking route between school and home for each child should not deviate substantially from the shortest route. We propose a bi‐objective model that minimizes both the total risk (particularly, the total distance walked alone) and the total walking distance for all children. We present an integer programming formulation of the proposed problem and apply this formulation to two instances based on actual road networks. We obtain Pareto optimal solutions using a mathematical programming solver and analyze the characteristics of the solutions and their potential applicability to real situations. The results show that the proposed model produces much better solutions compared with the solution where each child walks along the shortest path from school to home. In some optimal solutions, only a small deviation from the shortest path results in a dramatic reduction of the risk objective.

Walking and cycling to work despite reporting an unsupportive environment: insights from a mixed-method exploration of counterintuitive findings

BackgroundPerceptions of the environment appear to be associated with walking and cycling. We investigated the reasons for walking and cycling to or from work despite reporting an unsupportive route environment in a sample of commuters.MethodsThis mixed-method analysis used data collected as part of the Commuting and Health in Cambridge study. 1164 participants completed questionnaires which assessed the travel modes used and time spent on the commute and the perceived environmental conditions on the route to work. A subset of 50 also completed qualitative interviews in which they discussed their experiences of commuting. Participants were included in this analysis if they reported unsupportive conditions for walking or cycling on their route (e.g. heavy traffic) in questionnaires, walked or cycled all or part of the journey to work, and completed qualitative interviews. Using content analysis of these interviews, we investigated their reasons for walking or cycling.Results340 participants reported walking or cycling on the journey to work despite unsupportive conditions, of whom 15 also completed qualitative interviews. From these, three potential explanations emerged. First, some commuters found strategies for coping with unsupportive conditions. Participants described knowledge of the locality and opportunities for alternative routes more conducive to active commuting, as well as their cycling experience and acquired confidence to cycle in heavy traffic. Second, some commuters had other reasons for being reliant on or preferring active commuting despite adverse environments, such as childcare arrangements, enjoyment, having more control over their journey time, employers’ restrictions on car parking, or the cost of petrol or parking. Finally, some survey respondents appeared to have reported not their own environmental perceptions but those of others such as family members or ‘the public’, partly to make a political statement regarding the adversity of active commuting in their setting.ConclusionsParticipants report walking and cycling to work despite adverse environmental conditions. Understanding this resilience might be just as important as investigating ‘barriers’ to cycling. These findings suggest that developing knowledge of safe walking and cycling routes, improving cycling confidence and restricting workplace parking may help to encourage walking and cycling to and from work.

Preliminary Evidence for School-Based Physical Activity Policy Needs in Washington, DC

The school setting could be a primary venue for promoting physical activity among inner-city children due to the structured natured of the school day. We examined differences in step counts between structured school days (SSD) and weekend days (WED) among a sample of public school children in Washington, DC. Subjects (N = 29) were third- to sixth-grade students enrolled in government-funded, extended-day enrichment programs. Step counts were measured using a pedometer (Bodytronics) over 2 SSD and 2 WED. Differences in mean step counts between SSD and WED were determined using multivariable linear regression, with adjustments for age, sex, and reported distance between house and school (miles). Recorded step counts were low on both SSD and WED (7735 ± 3540 and 8339 ± 5314 steps/day). Boys tended to record more steps on SSD compared with girls (8080 ± 3141 vs. 7491 ± 3872 steps/day, respectively), whereas girls recorded more steps on the WED compared with boys (9292 ± 6381 vs. 7194 ± 3669 steps/day). Parameter estimates from the regression modeling suggest distance from school (P < .01) to be the strongest predictor of daily step counts, independent of day (SSD/WED), sex, and age. Among inner-city school children, a safe walking route to and from school may provide an important opportunity for daily physical activity.

Identifying and promoting safe walking routes in older adults

Background: Walking for physical activity is important for older adults' physical and mental health. We developed and tested the reliability of an environmental audit tool designed to be used by lay people to identify appropriate walking routes for older adults trying to increase their physical activity. Methods: A 44-item Walking Route Audit Tool for Seniors (WRATS) was developed based on literature review and input from older adults during focus groups. Observers completed the tool for 24 walking routes which were specifically selected to maximize variability in environment features and quality. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using Kappa and percent agreement. Results: Inter-rater reliability was good to excellent for 27 of the 44 WRATS items and moderate for 9 items. ICCs were good to excellent for 6 of the 8 scales (ICCs = 0.61 to 0.90). Conclusions: These results provide evidence for the reliability of WRATS for evaluating environmental attributes of walking routes suitable for older adults. Some scales need further refinement, and validity should be tested in a sample of older adults.

Determinants Of Daily Step Counts Among A Sample Of Low-income Children Attending Extended-day Programs

The school setting could be a primary venue for promoting physical activity in children, due to the structured nature of the school day. Extended-day programs have demonstrated the potential to provide safe and structured opportunities for play, as well as for development of behavioral and movement skills potentially linked to a sustained active lifestyle through adulthood. PURPOSE: To examine differences in daily step counts between structured school days (SSD) and weekend days (WED) among a selected sample of low-income children attending extended-day programs. METHODS: Subjects (N=29) were 3rd-6th grade students enrolled in a government-funded extended-day enrichment program in the District of Columbia. Step counts were measured using a pedometer (Bodytronics) over two week days and two weekend days. Covariables included age, sex, and reported distance between house and school (miles). Data were analyzed using multivariable linear regression. RESULTS: Generally, recorded step counts were low on both SSD and WED (7735±3540 and 8339±5314 stepsXXd-1). Boys tended to record more steps on SSD compared with girls (8080±3141 vs. 7491±3872 stepsXXd-1, respectively), whereas girls recorded more steps on the WED compared with boys (9292±6381 vs 7194±3669 steps·d-1). We observed a moderate correlation between distance from school and SSD step counts in boys (r=0.55; p<0.08), but not in girls (r=0.36; p<0.28). Parameter estimates from the regression modeling reveled distance from school (p<0.01) to be the strongest predictor of daily step counts, independent of day (SSD/WED), sex, and age. Indeed, step counts increased by 900 steps·d-1 with each additional mile a child lived from school (b=903.8; 95% CI=350.8 to1457.0). CONCLUSION: Among urban school children, a safe walking route to and from school may provide an important opportunity for physical activity.