Impacts of commute mode on body mass index: A longitudinal analysis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: COVID-19 has impacted millions of commuters by decreasing their mobility and transport patterns. While these changes in travel have been studied, less is known about how commute changes may have impacted individuals' body mass index (BMI). The present longitudinal study explores the relationship between commute mode and BMI of employed individuals in Montréal, Canada. Methods: This study uses panel data drawn from two waves of the Montréal Mobility Survey (MMS) conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 458). BMI was modeled separately for women and men as a function of commuting mode, WalkScore©, sociodemographic, and behavioral covariates using a multilevel regression modeling approach. Results: For women, BMI significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but telecommuting frequency, and more specifically telecommuting as a replacement of driving, led to a statistically significant decrease in BMI. For men, higher levels of residential local accessibility decreased BMI, while telecommuting did not have a statistically significant effect on BMI. Conclusions: This study's findings confirm previously observed gendered differences in the relations between the built environment, transport behaviors, and BMI, while offering new insights regarding the impacts of the changes in commute patterns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since some of the COVID-19 impacts on commute are expected to be lasting, findings from this research can be of use by health and transport practitioners as they work towards generating policies that improve population health.

Studying the Interrelationship between Telecommuting during COVID-19, residential local accessibility, and active travel: a panel study in Montréal, Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a substantial increase in the number of people working from home (telecommuting), in turn leading to unprecedented changes in mobility patterns worldwide. Due to the changing context of the pandemic, there is still a significant gap in knowledge regarding the effects of working from home on workers' travel patterns. The main goal of this work is to unravel the interrelationship between telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency of active travel for non-work utilitarian purposes, and local accessibility levels around workers' homes. This study uses a longitudinal approach by analyzing travel and telecommuting behavior data from a two-wave survey administered in Montreal in 2019, pre-pandemic, and 2021, during COVID-19 (n = 452). Through a set of weighted multi-level linear regressions, we study the effects of telecommuting on the frequency of active travel for non-work utilitarian purposes, mediated by local accessibility around the household. Results show that the effect of telecommuting on non-work active travel for utilitarian purposes is highly dependent on local accessibility levels around the person's household. For workers living in high local accessibility areas, an increase in telecommuting during the pandemic has induced an increase in active trips for non-work utilitarian purposes. On the other hand, for workers residing in low local accessibility neighborhoods, the effect is the opposite. This research provides insights into the effects of telecommuting on non-work active travel, an area that is currently of interest to policy-makers and practitioners working towards increasing the level of physical activity among individuals through travel.

Travel behaviour and greenhouse gas emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study in a university setting.

The year 2020 was characterized by a marked shift in daily travel patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we know that overall travel decreased, less is known about modal shift among those who continued to travel during the pandemic or about the impact of these travel-behaviour changes on transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Focusing on a university setting and drawing from a travel survey conducted in Fall 2020 in Montreal, Canada (n = 3358), this study examines modal shifts and quantifies greenhouse gas emissions at three time periods in the year 2020: pre-pandemic, early pandemic, and later pandemic. The pandemic resulted in a sharp reduction in travel to campus. Among those who continued to travel to campus (n = 1580), car-to-final destination mode share almost tripled at the start of the pandemic. The largest modal shift seen was the transition from walking, cycling, and transit, to driving at the beginning of the pandemic. Reductions in overall travel resulted in lower overall transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. However, if modal changes persist once students, staff, and academics return to campus, the transport carbon footprint is projected to increase above pre-pandemic levels. These results highlight the importance of putting in place policies that support a return to sustainable modes as universities and businesses reopen for in-person activities.

Accessing hemodialysis clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Transportation is a key element of access to healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic posed unique and unforeseen challenges to patients receiving hemodialysis who rely on three times weekly transportation to receive their life-saving treatments, but there is little data on the problems they faced. This study explores the attitudes, fears, and concerns of hemodialysis patients during the pandemic with a focus on their travel to/from dialysis treatments. A mixed methods travel survey was distributed to hemodialysis patients from three urban centers in Montréal, Canada, during the pandemic (n = 43). The survey included closed questions that were analysed through descriptive statistics as well as open-ended questions that were assessed through thematic analysis. Descriptive statistics show that hemodialysis patients are more fearful of contracting COVID-19 in transit than they are at the treatment center. Patients taking paratransit, public transportation, and taxis are more fearful of COVID-19 while traveling than those who drive, who are driven, or who walk to the clinic. In the open-ended questions, patients reported struggling with confusing COVID-19 protocols in public transport, including conflicting information on whether paratransit taxis allowed one or multiple passengers. Paratransit was the most used travel mode to access treatment (n = 30), with problems identified in the open-ended questions, such as long and unreliable pickup windows, and extended travel times. To limit COVID-19 exposure and stress for paratransit users, agencies should consider sitting one patient per paratransit taxi, clearly communicating COVID-19 protocols online and in the vehicles, and tracking vehicles for more efficient pickups.

Moving to policy-amenable options for built environment research: The role of micro-scale neighborhood environment in promoting walking.

BACKGROUND: Altering micro-scale features of neighborhoods (e.g., the presence and condition of benches, sidewalks, trees, crossing signals, walking paths) could be a relatively cost-effective method of creating environments that are conducive to physical activity. The Virtual Systematic Tool for Evaluating Pedestrian Streetscapes (Virtual-STEPS) was created to virtually audit the microscale environment of cities using Google Street View (GSV). The objective of this study was to evaluate the collective influence of items from the Virtual-STEPS tool on walking outcomes (utilitarian walking and walking for leisure), while accounting for self-selection of walkers into walking-friendly neighborhoods. METHODS: Adults (N = 1403) were recruited from Montreal and Toronto from neighborhoods stratified by their level of macro-scale walking-friendliness and walking rates. The micro-scale environment of 5% of street segments from the selected neighborhoods was audited using the Virtual-STEPS tool and a micro-scale environment score was assigned. The scores were then linked to each respondent from the survey. A multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to model the relationship between the micro-scale environment score and odds of both utilitarian walking (i.e., walking for purpose such as to go shopping or go to work or school) and walking for leisure for at least 150 min per week, while accounting for environmental and demographic covariates as well as self-selection. RESULTS: Micro-scale neighborhood features were associated with elevated odds of walking for leisure (OR: 1.14, CI: 1.04-1.25). The association between micro-scale neighborhood features and walking for utilitarian purposes was, however, inconclusive (OR: 1.01, CI: 0.90-1.13). On the other hand, macro-scale walk-friendliness was associated with elevated odds of walking for utilitarian purposes (OR: 2.01, CI:1.42-2.84) and the association between macro-scale features and leisure walking was inconclusive (OR: 1.02, CI: 0.78-1.34). CONCLUSIONS: Our results imply that micro-scale features of neighborhoods collectively promote leisure walking but not necessarily utilitarian walking, even after accounting for self-selection. In contrast, macro-scale features may collectively promote utilitarian walking, but not leisure walking. Micro scale features of neighborhoods fall within the budget of local jurisdictions and our results suggest that jurisdictions that improve micro-scale features may expect increased leisure walking in populations.

Achieving recommended daily physical activity levels through commuting by public transportation: unpacking individual and contextual influences.

This paper estimates the amount of daily walking associated with using public transportation in a large metropolitan area and examines individual and contextual characteristics associated with walking distances. Total walking distance to and from transit was calculated from a travel diary survey for 6913 individuals. Multilevel regression modelling was used to examine the underlying factors associated with walking to public transportation. The physical activity benefits of public transportation varied along gender and socio-economic lines. Recommended minutes of daily physical activity can be achieved for public transportation users, especially train users living in affluent suburbs.

The link between built environment, pedestrian activity and pedestrian-vehicle collision occurrence at signalized intersections.

This paper studies the influence of built environment (BE) - including land use types, road network connectivity, transit supply and demographic characteristics - on pedestrian activity and pedestrian-vehicle collision occurrence. For this purpose, a two-equation modeling framework is proposed to investigate the effect of built environment on both pedestrian activity and vehicle-pedestrian collision frequency at signalized intersections. Using accident data of ambulance services in the City of Montreal, the applicability of our framework is illustrated. Different model settings were attempted as part of a model sensitivity analysis. Among other results, it was found that the BE in the proximity of an intersection has a powerful association with pedestrian activity but a small direct effect on pedestrian-vehicle collision frequency. This suggests that the impact of BE is mainly mediated through pedestrian activity. In other words, strategies that encourage densification, mix of land uses and increase in transit supply will increase pedestrian activity and may indirectly, with no supplementary safety strategies, increase the total number of injured pedestrians. In accordance with previous research, the number of motor vehicles entering a particular intersection is the main determinant of collision frequency. Our results show that a 30% reduction in the traffic volume would reduce the total number of injured pedestrians by 35% and the average risk of pedestrian collision by 50% at the intersections under analysis. Major arterials are found to have a double negative effect on pedestrian safety. They are positively linked to traffic but negatively associated with pedestrian activity. The proposed framework is useful for the identification of effective pedestrian safety actions, the prediction of pedestrian volumes and the appropriate safety design of new urban developments that encourage walking.