Impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the transport sector and the corresponding policy measures are becoming widely investigated. Considering the various uncertainties and unknowns about ...this virus and its impacts (especially long-term impacts), it is critical to understand opinions and suggestions from experts within the transport sector and related planning fields. To date, however, there is no study that fills this gap in a comprehensive way. This paper is an executive summary of the findings of the WCTRS COVID-19 Taskforce expert survey conducted worldwide between the end of April and late May 2020, obtaining 284 valid answers. The experts include those in the field of transport and other relevant disciplines, keeping good balances between geographic regions, types of workplaces, and working durations. Based on extensive analyses of the survey results, this paper first reveals the realities of lockdowns, restrictions of out-of-home activities and other physical distancing requirements, as well as modal shifts. Experts’ agreements and disagreements to the structural questions about changes in lifestyles and society are then discussed. Analysis results revealed that our human society was not well prepared for the current pandemic, reaffirming the importance of risk communication. Geographical differences of modal shifts are further identified, especially related to active transport and car dependence. Improved sustainability and resilience are expected in the future but should be supported by effective behavioral intervention measures. Finally, policy implications of the findings are discussed, together with important future research issues.
•Findings are derived from a worldwide expert survey implemented in April–May 2020.•Guidelines and contingency plans were reported by only about 30% of experts.•Remarkable modal shifts away from public transport usage were reported.•Developing countries were equally active in taking measures as developed countries.•Various long-term changes in lifestyles and society were revealed.
Summary Land-use and transport policies contribute to worldwide epidemics of injuries and non-communicable diseases through traffic exposure, noise, air pollution, social isolation, low physical ...activity, and sedentary behaviours. Motorised transport is a major cause of the greenhouse gas emissions that are threatening human health. Urban and transport planning and urban design policies in many cities do not reflect the accumulating evidence that, if policies would take health effects into account, they could benefit a wide range of common health problems. Enhanced research translation to increase the influence of health research on urban and transport planning decisions could address many global health problems. This paper illustrates the potential for such change by presenting conceptual models and case studies of research translation applied to urban and transport planning and urban design. The primary recommendation of this paper is for cities to actively pursue compact and mixed-use urban designs that encourage a transport modal shift away from private motor vehicles towards walking, cycling, and public transport. This Series concludes by urging a systematic approach to city design to enhance health and sustainability through active transport and a move towards new urban mobility. Such an approach promises to be a powerful strategy for improvements in population health on a permanent basis.
Most of the existing literature concerning the links between built environment and COVID-19 outcomes is based on aggregate spatial data averaged across entire cities or counties. We present ...neighborhood level results linking census tract-level built environment and active/sedentary travel measures with COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality rates in King County Washington. Substantial variations in COVID-19 outcomes and built environment features existed across neighborhoods. Using rigorous simulation-assisted discrete outcome random parameter models, the results shed new lights on the direct and indirect connections between built environment, travel behavior, positivity, hospitalization, and mortality rates. More mixed land use and greater pedestrian-oriented street connectivity is correlated with lower COVID-19 hospitalization/fatality rates. Greater participation in sedentary travel correlates with higher COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality whereas the reverse is true for greater participation in active travel. COVID-19 hospitalizations strongly mediate the relationships between built environment, active travel, and COVID-19 survival. Ignoring unobserved heterogeneity even when higher resolution smaller area spatial data are harnessed leads to inaccurate conclusions.
•We analyze neighborhood-level determinants of COVID-19 hospitalization & mortality.•Direct/indirect associations of built environment and active travel are quantified.•Rigorous simulation-assisted discrete outcome models are developed.•Ignoring unobserved heterogeneity can lead to misleading conclusions.•Creating walkable infrastructure & supporting active travel can improve population-level wellbeing.
Half the world's population lives in urban areas. It is therefore important to identify characteristics of the built environment that are beneficial to human health. Urban greenness has been ...associated with improvements in a diverse range of health conditions, including birth outcomes; however, few studies have attempted to distinguish potential effects of greenness from those of other spatially correlated exposures related to the built environment.
We aimed to investigate associations between residential greenness and birth outcomes and evaluate the influence of spatially correlated built environment factors on these associations.
We examined associations between residential greenness measured using satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within 100 m of study participants' homes and birth outcomes in a cohort of 64,705 singleton births (from 1999-2002) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We also evaluated associations after adjusting for spatially correlated built environmental factors that may influence birth outcomes, including exposure to air pollution and noise, neighborhood walkability, and distance to the nearest park.
An interquartile increase in greenness (0.1 in residential NDVI) was associated with higher term birth weight (20.6 g; 95% CI: 16.5, 24.7) and decreases in the likelihood of small for gestational age, very preterm (< 30 weeks), and moderately preterm (30-36 weeks) birth. Associations were robust to adjustment for air pollution and noise exposures, neighborhood walkability, and park proximity.
Increased residential greenness was associated with beneficial birth outcomes in this population-based cohort. These associations did not change after adjusting for other spatially correlated built environment factors, suggesting that alternative pathways (e.g., psychosocial and psychological mechanisms) may underlie associations between residential greenness and birth outcomes.
Children in households of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to be overweight/obese. We aimed to determine if home physical activity (PA) environments differed by SES and to explore ...home environment mediators of the relation of family SES to children's PA and sedentary behavior.
Participants were 715 children aged 6 to 11 from the Neighborhood Impact on Kids (NIK) Study. Household SES was examined using highest educational attainment and income. Home environment was measured by parent report on a survey. Outcomes were child's accelerometer-measured PA and parent-reported screen time. Mediation analyses were conducted for home environment factors that varied by SES.
Children from lower income households had greater media access in their bedrooms (TV 52% vs. 14%, DVD player 39% vs. 14%, video games 21% vs. 9%) but lower access to portable play equipment (bikes 85% vs. 98%, jump ropes 69% vs. 83%) compared to higher income children. Lower SES families had more restrictive rules about PA (2.5 vs. 2.0). Across SES, children watched TV/DVDs with parents/siblings more often than they engaged in PA with them. Parents of lower SES watched TV/DVDs with their children more often (3.1 vs. 2.5 days/week). Neither total daily and home-based MVPA nor sedentary time differed by SES. Children's daily screen time varied from 1.7 hours/day in high SES to 2.4 in low SES families. Media in the bedroom was related to screen time, and screen time with parents was a mediator of the SES--screen time relationship.
Lower SES home environments provided more opportunities for sedentary behavior and fewer for PA. Removing electronic media from children's bedrooms has the potential to reduce disparities in chronic disease risk.
Studies of the built environment and physical activity (PA) have primarily been cross-sectional. Evidence on the causal impacts of transportation improvements on PA and sedentary behavior (SB) is ...lacking. This study assessed the effect of retrofitting an urban greenway on PA and SB in Vancouver, Canada. A sample of 524 participants (median age of 44; 57% female) were divided into experimental and control groups, and the effect of exposure to the greenway was examined by using different distance thresholds. Self-report measures of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and SB were collected using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) before (baseline; 2012–2013) and after (follow-up; 2014–2015) construction of the Comox-Helmcken Greenway in 2013. Mixed-effects models estimated the impacts of greenway on MVPA and SB. For participants living near the greenway (≤300 m), the odds of achieving an average of 20 min of daily MVPA doubled (OR = 2.00; 95% CI = 1.00, 3.98) after the greenway's opening. The odds of being sedentary for >9 h declined by 54% (OR = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.25, 0.85) after opening. PA benefits from the greenway declined with distance from 100 m to 500 m. Reduction in SB was lowest at 100 m and greatest at 300 m. Retrofitting an urban residential neighborhood through greenway interventions can be successful in promoting physical activity while reducing sedentary behavior. Recommendations for future longitudinal research include the use of objective PA measures, studying different neighborhood contexts, collecting more representative samples, and minimizing attrition.
•A pre-post evaluation of urban greenway on physical activity and sedentary behavior.•Participants near the greenway doubled their odds of achieving 20 min daily MVPA.•The odds of being sedentary for >9 h halved for nearby residents.•Physical activity benefits declined with increasing distance from the greenway.•Retrofitting an urban greenway can be successful in promoting active lifestyle.
Walkable neighborhoods provide significant sustainability, health, and motorized user safety benefits. Far less consideration is given to the potential pedestrian/bicyclist safety-related ...implications of macro-level walkability. Making it desirable to walk and bike without providing the proper physical environment to make it safe is clearly problematic. This study assessed the links between neighborhood walkability and pedestrian/bicyclist traffic fatalities across metropolitan areas in the U.S. We integrated and harnessed geocoded data on pedestrian/bicyclist and all mode traffic fatalities, travel behavior exposures (use of sedentary and active travel modes), sociodemographic, and control variables. Associations of pedestrian/bicyclist traffic fatality rates with walkability characteristics were estimated using multilevel Tobit models with treatment for hierarchical unobserved regional and state variations. Walkability index (mixed land use, street intersection density, and transit accessibility) was positively correlated with pedestrian/bicyclist fatality rates after adjusting for travel exposures, sociodemographic controls, and regional and state-level unobserved variations. A unit increase in the walkability index was associated with a 4.9% increase (95% CI: 4.2%, 5.7%) in pedestrian/bicyclist fatality rates. Conversely, the walkability index was negatively correlated with total or all-mode fatality rates. The positive association between walkability and pedestrian/bicyclist fatality rates appeared robust in different sensitivity analyses. Despite non-linearities, neighborhoods with greater population using active travel modes for commute had on-average higher pedestrian/bicyclist fatality rates. The reverse was true for neighborhoods with greater teleworking population. Neighborhoods with greater prevalence of black, low-income, and younger adults had on-average higher pedestrian/bicyclist fatality rates. Results emphasize the need to develop new conceptual definitions of walkability that consider safety within the built environments. Our results highlight the importance of understanding how pedestrian/bicyclist supportive design can be used to maximize the positive health benefits of walkability while reducing the risk of pedestrian/bicyclist deaths. Findings also suggest the need to enhance existing walkability assessment techniques (indices) to predict and simulate how different investments impact pedestrian/bicyclist safety. Incorporation of objective pedestrian/bicyclist safety in walkability assessments can assist practitioners to simultaneously improve health while minimizing safety risks to vulnerable road users.
Evidence for an association between transportation noise and cardiovascular disease has increased; however, few studies have examined metabolic outcomes such as diabetes or accounted for ...environmental coexposures such as air pollution, greenness, or walkability.
Because diabetes prevalence is increasing and may be on the causal pathway between noise and cardiovascular disease, we examined the influence of long-term residential transportation noise exposure and traffic-related air pollution on the incidence of diabetes using a population-based cohort in British Columbia, Canada.
We examined the influence of transportation noise exposure over a 5-y period (1994-1998) on incident diabetes cases in a population-based prospective cohort study (n=380,738) of metropolitan Vancouver (BC) residents who were 45-85 y old, with 4-y of follow-up (1999-2002). Annual average transportation noise (Lden), air pollution black carbon, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5μm (PM
), nitrogen oxides, greenness Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and neighborhood walkability at each participant's residence were modeled. Incident diabetes cases were identified using administrative health records.
Transportation noise was associated with the incidence of diabetes interquartile range (IQR) increase, 6.8 A-weighted decibels (dBA); OR=1.08 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.10). This association remained after adjustment for environmental coexposures including traffic-related air pollutants, greenness, and neighborhood walkability. After adjustment for coexposure to noise, traffic-related air pollutants were not associated with the incidence of diabetes, whereas greenness was protective.
We found a positive association between residential transportation noise and diabetes, adding to the growing body of evidence that noise pollution exposure may be independently linked to metabolic health and should be considered when developing public health interventions. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1279.
This study examines the moderating effect of perceived safety on the association of green space with neighborhood social capital in older adults. Green space may play an important role for promoting ...neighborhood social capital and health for older adults; however, safety remains a significant challenge in maximizing the benefits of green space. Data were drawn from 647 independent-living seniors who participated in the Senior Neighborhood Quality of Life Study in the Seattle/King County and Baltimore/Washington DC region. The results suggest that certain green space elements, such as natural sights, may be beneficial to neighborhood social capital of older adults. However, other types of green space, such as parks and street trees, may be less advantageous to older adults who perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe for pedestrians. Findings highlight the importance of pedestrian safety in examining associations of green space with neighborhood social capital in older adults. Further studies using a longitudinal design are warranted to confirm the causality of the findings.
•Little is known about the role of safety in linking green space to social capital.•Different types of green space had different effects on social capital.•Natural sights were positively related to social capital regardless of safety.•Street trees and park access were negatively related when people feel less safe.
Creating more physical activity-supportive built environments is recommended by the World Health Organization for controlling noncommunicable diseases. The IPEN (International Physical Activity and ...Environment Network) Adult Study was undertaken to provide international evidence on associations of built environments with physical activity and weight status in 12 countries on 5 continents (
n
> 14,000). This article presents reanalyzed data from eight primary papers to identify patterns of findings across studies. Neighborhood environment attributes, whether measured objectively or by self-report, were strongly related to all physical activity outcomes (accelerometer-assessed total physical activity, reported walking for transport and leisure) and meaningfully related to overweight obesity. Multivariable indexes of built environment variables were more strongly related to most outcomes than were single-environment variables. Designing activity-supportive built environments should be a higher international health priority. Results provide evidence in support of global initiatives to increase physical activity and control noncommunicable diseases while achieving sustainable development goals.
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