title: Creating Cycling-Friendly Environments for Children: Which Micro-Scale Factors Are Most Important? An Experimental Study Using Manipulated Photographs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increasing participation in transportation cycling represents a useful strategy for increasing children's physical activity levels. Knowledge on how to design environments to encourage adoption and maintenance of transportation cycling is limited and relies mainly on observational studies. The current study experimentally investigates the relative importance of micro-scale environmental factors for children's transportation cycling, as these micro-scale factors are easier to change within an existing neighborhood compared to macro-scale environmental factors (i.e. connectivity, land-use mix, …).
  
  
  METHODS
  Researchers recruited children and their parents (n = 1232) via 45 randomly selected schools across Flanders and completed an online questionnaire which consisted of 1) demographic questions; and 2) a choice-based conjoint (CBC) task. During this task, participants chose between two photographs which we had experimentally manipulated in seven micro-scale environmental factors: type of cycle path; evenness of cycle path; traffic speed; traffic density; presence of speed bumps; environmental maintenance; and vegetation. Participants indicated which route they preferred to (let their child) cycle along. To find the relative importance of these micro-scale environmental factors, we conducted Hierarchical Bayes analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Type of cycle path emerged as the most important factor by far among both children and their parents, followed by traffic density and maintenance, and evenness of the cycle path among children. Among parents, speed limits and maintenance emerged as second most important, followed by evenness of the cycle path, and traffic density.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings indicate that improvements in micro-scale environmental factors might be effective for increasing children's transportation cycling, since they increase the perceived supportiveness of the physical environment for transportation cycling. Investments in creating a clearly designated space for the young cyclist, separated from motorized traffic, appears to be the most effective way to increase perceived supportiveness. Future research should confirm our laboratory findings with experimental on-site research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.|Department of Human Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.|Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), B-1000, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghekiere
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.|Department of Human Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Benedicte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Deforche
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Lieze
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mertens
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Bourdeaudhuij
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clarys
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Geus
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Greet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardon
authors.affiliation: Ohio State University, City and Regional Planning, Columbus, OH, 43210, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nasar
authors.affiliation: Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Science, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.|Department of Human Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.|Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), B-1000, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Cauwenberg
mesh_terms: D001642:Bicycling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012449:Safety; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires