title: Association Between User-Generated Commuting Data and Population-Representative Active Commuting Surveillance Data - Four Cities, 2014-2015.
abstract: Creating environments that support all types of physical activity, including active transportation, is a public health priority (1). Public health surveillance that identifies the locations where community members walk and bicycle (i.e., engage in active transportation) can inform such efforts. Traditional population-representative active transportation surveillance incurs a considerable time lag between data collection and dissemination, and often lacks geographic specificity (2). Conversely, user-generated active transportation data from Global Positioning System (GPS)-based activity tracking devices and mobile applications can provide near real-time information, but might be subject to self-selection bias among users. CDC analyzed the association between GPS-based commuting data from a company that allows tracking of activity with a mobile application (Strava, Inc., San Francisco, California) and population-representative commuting data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) (3) for four U.S. cities. The level of analysis was the Census block group. The number of GPS-tracked commuters in Strava was associated with the number of ACS active commuters (Spearman's rho = 0.60), suggesting block groups were ranked similarly based on these distinct but related measurements. The correlation was higher in high population density areas. User-generated active transportation data might complement traditional surveillance systems by providing near real-time, location-specific information on where active transportation occurs.
authors.forename: Geoffrey P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Whitfield
authors.forename: Emily N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Ussery
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Riordan
authors.forename: Arthur M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wendel
mesh_terms: D001642:Bicycling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002947:Cities; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014186:Transportation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data