Longer afterschool active commutes and the travel environment of middle schools in Shenzhen, China.

The afterschool commute is a major part of children's daily activity. This study examines the relationship between student extended active travel routes and route environment characteristics. Route environment characteristics may be related to an extended route for students who walk or bike home. Self-reported itineraries were collected from 12 to 15-year old students in 3 middle schools in Shenzhen in May and June (n = 1257). Itineraries involving a detour from the shortest possible route home (n = 437) were compared with the shortest route. A field study coded all possible routes within the school districts by playable open spaces, sidewalk width, controlled crossings, road category, and public transit stops. Binary logistic regression reveals that routes with greater intersection density and number of open spaces are related to active travel choice. Sidewalk width, number of traffic lights and proportion of arterial roads are positively related to motorized travel. Linear regression reveals that travel distance, sidewalk width, number of open spaces and street crossings, as well as the proportion of secondary roads and pathways are positively related to detour distance. Higher numbers of public transit stops and traffic lights are related to shorter detours. Attending cram school is also negatively associated with active travel and detour. Younger students, females and students with longer moderate-to-vigorous physical activity time have extended active travel. Specific route environment characteristics are associated with longer and more active middle school student commutes and may be implemented to raise overall activity levels in children.

Pokémon GO and Physical Activity in Asia: Multilevel Study.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity has long been considered as an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Although many efforts have been made to promote physical activity, there is no effective global intervention for physical activity promotion. Some researchers have suggested that Pokémon GO, a location-based augmented reality game, was associated with a short-term increase in players' physical activity on a global scale, but the details are far from clear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to study the relationship between Pokémon GO use and players' physical activity and how the relationship varies across players with different physical activity levels. METHODS: We conducted a field study in Hong Kong to investigate if Pokémon GO use was associated with physical activity. Pokémon GO players were asked to report their demographics through a survey; data on their Pokémon GO behaviors and daily walking and running distances were collected from their mobile phones. Participants (n=210) were Hong Kong residents, aged 13 to 65 years, who played Pokémon GO using iPhone 5 or 6 series in 5 selected types of built environment. We measured the participants' average daily walking and running distances over a period of 35 days, from 14 days before to 21 days after game installation. Multilevel modeling was used to identify and examine the predictors (including Pokémon GO behaviors, weather, demographics, and built environment) of the relationship between Pokémon GO use and daily walking and running distances. RESULTS: The average daily walking and running distances increased by 18.1% (0.96 km, approximately 1200 steps) in the 21 days after the participants installed Pokémon GO compared with the average distances over the 14 days before installation (P<.001). However, this association attenuated over time and was estimated to disappear 24 days after game installation. Multilevel models indicated that Pokémon GO had a stronger and more lasting association among the less physically active players compared with the physically active ones (P<.001). Playing Pokémon GO in green space had a significant positive relationship with daily walking and running distances (P=.03). Moreover, our results showed that whether Pokémon GO was played, the number of days played, weather (total rainfall, bright sunshine, mean air temperature, and mean wind speed), and demographics (age, gender, income, education, and body mass index) were associated with daily walking and running distances. CONCLUSIONS: Pokémon GO was associated with a short-term increase in the players' daily walking and running distances; this association was especially strong among less physically active participants. Pokémon GO can build new links between humans and green space and encourage people to engage in physical activity. Our results show that location-based augmented reality games, such as Pokémon GO, have the potential to be a global public health intervention tool.

Do Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) and Established Urban Neighborhoods Have Similar Walking Levels in Hong Kong?

A sharp drop in physical activity and skyrocketing obesity rate has accompanied rapid urbanization in China. The urban planning concept of transit-oriented development (TOD) has been widely advocated in China to promote physical activity, especially walking. Indeed, many design features thought to promote walking-e.g., mixed land use, densification, and well-connected street network-often characterize both TODs and established urban neighborhoods. Thus, it is often assumed that TODs have similar physical activity benefits as established urban neighborhoods. To verify this assumption, this study compared walking behaviors in established urban neighborhoods and transit-oriented new towns in Hong Kong. To address the limitation of self-selection bias, we conducted a study using Hong Kong citywide public housing scheme, which assigns residents to different housing estates by flat availability and family size rather than personal preference. The results show new town residents walked less for transportation purpose than urban residents. New town residents far from the transit station (800-1200 m) walked less for recreational purpose than TOD residents close to a rail transit station (<400 m) or urban residents. The observed disparity in walking behaviors challenges the common assumption that TOD and established urban neighborhoods have similar impact on walking behavior. The results suggest the necessity for more nuanced planning strategies, taking local-level factors into account to promote walking of TOD residents who live far from transit stations.

Local environment and social factors in primary school children's afterschool commute in China.

The rapid decline in young children's active commutes to and from school has prompted investigations into ways to raise activity levels. The period after school is recognized as very important in the daily activity regime of primary school children. In this study, we examine the relative effects of local environmental factors and socio-economic status on children's after-school commute mode choice. Environmental factors are pedestrian priority streets, street intersection density, motorways, shops, and play spaces. Property values are used as a proxy for income. Twenty-four school districts are selected using intersection density and motorway length as criteria. All children's exit behaviors were film-recorded on October weekdays and extracted as four choices-alone, in a group of children, on foot with a parent or guardian, on e-bike driven by an adult. A multinomial logistic regression reveals that gated communities, higher priced housing, motorways and bus stops are associated with children accompanied by adults. The presence of pedestrian streets is associated with children travelling alone and in groups. Greater travel distance is also associated with parents accompanying children on foot or on e-bike. The amount of play space is associated with children leaving school in groups. Overall, social and environmental factors are influential in the independent travel of primary school children after the school day ends in south China.

Choosing between stairs and escalators in China: The impact of location, height and pedestrian volume.

OBJECTIVE: This research examines whether Beijing residents are more or less likely than Montréal residents to avoid stair climbing, by replicating a study in Montréal, Canada that measured the impacts of distance between stairs and escalator, height between floors and pedestrian volume on stair climbing rate. METHOD: 15 stairways, 14 up-escalators and 13 down-escalators were selected in 13 publicly accessible settings in Beijing. Distance between the bottom or top of nearest stair and escalator combinations varied from 2.1 m to 114.1 m with height between floors varying from 3.3 m to 21.7 m. Simultaneous counts were conducted on stair and escalator pairs, for a total of 37,081 counted individuals. RESULTS: In the ascent model, pedestrian volume accounted for 16.3% of variance in stair climbing, 16.4% when height was added and 45.1% when distance was added. In the descent model, 40.9% of variance was explained by pedestrian volume, 41.5% when height was added and 45.5% when distance was added. CONCLUSION: Separating stairs and escalator is effective in increasing stair climbing in Beijing, accounting for 29% of the variance in stair climbing, compared with 43% in Montreal. As in the Montreal case, distance has less effect on stair use rate when descending. Overall, 25.4% of Beijingers opted for stairs when ascending compared with 20.3% of Montrealers, and for descending 32.8% and 31.1% respectively.

Perceived building density as a function of layout.

This paper addresses two issues in the subjective measurement of density, (a) whether perceived density is influenced by the sizes and spacing of buildings and (b) whether perceived density is influenced by surface details. Two experiments were conducted. Stimuli in Exp. 1 were 9 photomontages of rows of residential buildings. Factors were (a) building surface area (at low, medium, and high levels) and (b) layout (many small buildings and small gaps to few large buildings and large gaps, in three levels). Amount of visible building surface area accounted for 63% of variance of scaled impressions of density, while layout accounted for 15% of variance. Stimuli in Exp. 2 were grey boxes with the same factors of building surface area and layout. Scaled impressions of density of buildings and boxes correlated at .95, suggesting that surface detail had a minor effect in perceived density.