Public transit generates new physical activity: Evidence from individual GPS and accelerometer data before and after light rail construction in a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Poor health outcomes from insufficient physical activity (PA) are a persistent public health issue. Public transit is often promoted for positive influence on PA. Although there is cross-sectional evidence that transit users have higher PA levels, this may be coincidental or shifted from activities such as recreational walking. We use a quasi-experimental design to test if light rail transit (LRT) generated new PA in a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Participants (n=536) wore Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and accelerometers before (2012) and after (2013) LRT construction. We test within-person differences in individuals' PA time based on changes in transit usage pre- versus post-intervention. We map transit-related PA to detect spatial clustering of PA around the new transit stops. We analyze within-person differences in PA time based on daily transit use and estimate the effect of daily transit use on PA time controlling for socio-demographic variables. Results suggest that transit use directly generates new PA that is not shifted from other PA. This supports the public health benefits from new high quality public transit such as LRT.
Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, 1036 Derby Hall/154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), The Ohio State University, USA. Electronic address: miller.81@osu.edu.
Harvey J
HJ
Miller
Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, 1036 Derby Hall/154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), The Ohio State University, USA.
Calvin P
CP
Tribby
Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, USA.
Barbara B
BB
Brown
Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, USA; Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, USA.
Ken R
KR
Smith
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, USA.
Carol M
CM
Werner
Westat, Inc., USA.
Jean
J
Wolf
Westat, Inc., USA.
Laura
L
Wilson
Westat, Inc., USA.
Marcelo G Simas
MG
Oliveira
D061725:Accelerometry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004779:Environment Design; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011890:Railroads; D014186:Transportation / Q000379:methods*; D014589:Utah
Accelerometer; Global positioning system; Physical activity; Public transit; Quasi-experiment