Google Walkability: A New Tool for Local Planning and Public Health Research?

Jason Vargo · Brian Stone · Karen Glanz

57 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Physical Activity and Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Urban Transport and Accessibility Urban Design and Spatial Analysis Urban Green Space and Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We investigate the association of different composite walkability measures with individual walking behaviors to determine if multicomponent metrics of walkability are more useful for assessing the health impacts of the built environment than single component measures. METHODS: We use a previously published composite walkability measure as well as a new measure that was designed to represent easier methods of combination and which includes 2 metrics obtained using Google data sources. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between walking behavior and walkability metrics. RESULTS: Our results suggest that composite measures of walkability are more consistent predictors of walking behavior than single component measures. Furthermore, a walkability measure developed using free, publicly available data from Google was found to be nearly as effective in predicting walking outcomes as a walkability measure derived without such publicly and nationally available measures. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of free and locally relevant data for assessing walkable environments. This facilitates the use of locally derived and adaptive tools for evaluating the health impacts of the built environment.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 57 citations exist upstream.

References

1997Travel demand and the 3Ds: Density, diversity, and design 2003Neighborhood-Based Differences in Physical Activity: An Environment Scale Evaluation 2004Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars 2003Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity 2009Measuring the Built Environment for Physical Activity 1997A micro-analysis of land use and travel in five neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area 1994Impacts of Mixed Use and Density on Utilization of Three Modes of Travel: Single-Occupant Vehicle, Transit, and Walking 2003Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence From the San Francisco Bay Area

Cited by

2016Built environment assessment: Multidisciplinary perspectives 2018Addressing issues in the use of Google tools for assessing pedestrian built environments 2015Technologies to Measure and Modify Physical Activity and Eating Environments 2019Walkability Assessment in a Rapidly Urbanizing City and Its Relationship with Residential Estate Value 2019

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.