263369 Examining active transportation patterns in Kingston, Ontario, Canada: An analysis of socio-demographics, destinations, and duration by modal split

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Patricia Collins, PhD , School of Urban and Regional Planning, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
Daphne Mayer, MPH , Research and Education Division, Kingston Frontenac Lennox & Addington Public Health Unit, Kingston, ON, Canada
Objectives: Active transportation (AT) is any form of human-powered transportation (e.g., walking, cycling) to arrive at a destination. The objective of this study was to examine the extent, mode, duration, and destinations of AT in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted with a random sample of adults living in Kingston. A total of n=1400 completed surveys were generated, with a response rate of 21.2%.

Results: The majority (72%) of respondents had engaged in AT in the seven days prior to completing the survey. Walkers were significantly more likely than cyclists to be older, female, and retired (all p<0.010). Average AT mode-split was 91.7% walking – 8.3% cycling, but destination-specific analysis reveals bicycle trips were much higher than average for work (22.5%). Top three destinations for walkers were corner store (14%), grocery store (12%), and park (11%), and for cyclists were work (18%), grocery store (11%), and bank (10%). The mean duration for AT was 13 minutes for walkers and 14 minutes for cyclists.

Discussion: The majority of survey respondents engaged in AT, with walking as the predominant mode. While walkers and cyclists access destinations to varying degrees, the time they spent engaging in physical activity to arrive at those destinations was comparable, suggesting some predictability in how much time people devote to AT. That these findings were generated from an automobile-centric mid-sized city in Ontario underscores considerable appetite for AT, and opportunities for public health officials and urban planners to increase physical activity levels within their communities.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1. Compare attributes of people who walk versus cycle for active transportation 2. Assess the challenges to increasing the frequency and duration of active transportation in a mid-sized city characterized by an aging population 3. Identify opportunities for intervention by public health officials and urban planners to promote active transportation in their communities

Keywords: Physical Activity, Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a researcher at the local health unit that administered the survey, and I have been a collaborator on the research team that conducted the survey. I have worked with this research team for the past several months on a strategy for disseminating the findings from the final report to audiences beyond the health unit and the City of Kingston, Ontario.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4165.0: Poster Session - Research & Data Analysis