Walking to public transit: steps to help meet physical activity recommendations.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Transportation Science
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Many Americans do not meet daily physical activity recommendations.
• Walking to and from public transit offers a potential avenue for increasing physical activity.
• This study investigates the extent to which transit users achieve physical activity goals through walking to transit.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the daily time spent walking to and from public transit.
• To identify predictors of achieving 30 minutes of daily physical activity by walking to transit.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 105,942 adult respondents of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey.
• Examination of transit-associated walking times for 3,312 transit users.
• Multivariate analysis to identify factors associated with increased walking time.

Main Results:

• Transit users walk a median of 19 minutes daily to and from transit.
• 29% of transit users achieve at least 30 minutes of physical activity solely by walking to transit.
• Rail users, minorities, low-income individuals (<$15,000), and those in dense urban areas were more likely to walk >=30 minutes.

Conclusions:

• Walking to public transportation is a viable strategy to increase physical activity, particularly for inactive populations like low-income and minority groups.
• Expanding public transit access may promote active lifestyles and contribute to public health.
• Findings can inform health impact assessments for transportation planning.