Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #120826

Larry Frank, School of Community and Regional Planning, Centre for Human Settlements, 1933 West Mall, Room 231, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada, (604) 822-5387, ldfrank@interchange.ubc.ca

A growing body of evidence suggests that a significant relation exists between urban form and the choice to walk. However, most of these studies are cross-sectional in design and compare different people located in walkable and non-walkable environments, controlling for socio-demographic factors. Many argue that such designs cannot determine whether it is the physical environment that is impacting the increased levels of walking and physical activity observed in more compact mixed use environments, or the underlying attitudes and preferences that impact community selection and behavior. This issue, known as self-selection, has become a major barrier in the ability to ascertain how much more walking and less driving would likely occur through the creation of more walkable environments. This study documents how specific measures of urban form impact travel choice and physical activity levels for “urbanites” stating their preferences for walkable environments and for “suburbanites” stating their preference for auto-oriented environments. The research design groups observations into attitudinal cohorts based on preferences for community design and compares activity patterns across urban form for respondents in each attitudinal cohort. Through this approach, it is possible to compare the travel choices and physical activity levels of observations with similar preferences for community types, located in different types of physical environments, while adjusting for income, gender, educational attainment, ethnicity and other demographic covariates.

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