Carme Miralles-Guasch

Neighbourhood vitality and physical activity among the elderly: The role of walkable environments on active ageing in Barcelona, Spain

This study investigated whether neighbourhood vitality and walkability were associated with active ageing of the elderly. Immobility, activity engagement and physical activity were explored in relation with age, gender and walkability of the built environment. Number of trips per day and minutes spent on walking by the elderly were extracted from a broad travel survey with more than 12,000 CATI interviews and were compared across vital and non-vital urban environments. Results highlight the importance of vital environments for elderly active mobility as subpopulations residing in highly walkable neighbourhoods undertook more trips and spent more minutes walking than their counterparts. The results also suggest that the built environment has different effects in terms of gender, as elderly men were more susceptible to urban vitality than elderly women.

A gender analysis of everyday mobility in urban and rural territories: from challenges to sustainability

Gender differences in mobility patterns between women and men have long been acknowledged. This study analyses how these differences are reproduced in different urban and rural contexts. Using mobility data from a large travel survey taken in 2006 in Spain, we examine the differences between gender mobility through age, modal split and trip purposes. Special attention is paid to how territory shapes mobility and how these territorial settings differently affect gendered mobilities. The use of this data source allows the comparison of all trips made by the total population, including all means of transport. By taking a global view on mobility, the uneven relationships that men and women have with different means of transport become more visible. After disaggregating data by age and territorial settings, results show that women are using sustainable transport modes more often than men, and travelling for more diverse reasons. Gender is thus a fundamental variable in understanding modal split and, by extension, transport sustainability, in terms of energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases. From this point of view, we consider womens mobility knowledge and practices – typically related to the most sustainable means of transport – as factors with rising value that could effectively guide public policy in its way to promote more sustainable mobility patterns.

Las encuestas de movilidad y los referentes ambientales de los transportes

La contribucion de los desplazamientos de la poblacion a las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, en la medida en que utiliza medios de transporte mecanicos, principalmente el automovil, es irrefutable. Muchos trabajos coinciden en que esa contribucion bordea el 30 por ciento del total de emisiones. Sin embargo, no todos los medios de transporte tienen un mismo nivel de incidencia en este proceso, por lo que es de suma importancia analizar el reparto modal de los movimientos de una poblacion para determinar su grado de participacion en la contaminacion ambiental. Este articulo analiza el reparto modal en Cataluna, partiendo de los datos de la Encuesta de Movilidad Cotidiana (2006), desde el binomio territorial urbano/rural y desde la categoria motivacional que los genera.

Local accessibility inequalities and willingness to walk in Latin-American cities: Findings from Medellín, Colombia

ABSTRACT As planning for accessibility is becoming a priority for most cities, policies encouraging short-distance traveling and the use of active modes of transport are gaining force. Emphasizing short-distance travel and localized practices can produce positive sustainable outcomes, but in order to design proper public policies, a deeper understanding of the determinants of this mobility of proximity is still needed. This paper uses mobility data from the city of Medellín, Colombia, to examine the role of local accessibility and the proximate scale in the citys everyday mobility. The analysis aimed at testing whether significant efforts on improving local conditions and fostering local mobility would help to improve social exclusion and transport disadvantage situations by alleviating the need of motorized and long-distance transport. Unlike most traditional analysis, proximity is not defined by Euclidian distance but instead using travel and modal choice variables. Results show the relevance of socioeconomic variables at determining travel behaviors as well as the importance of local accessibility for social groups in situations of transport disadvantage.

Resilient territories and mobility adaptation strategies in times of economic recession: Evidence from the metropolitan region of Barcelona, Spain 2004–2012

The international financial crisis has affected people’s everyday activities, changing multiple aspects of their daily behavior. In countries deeply affected by the economic recession, the crisis has produced a significant incentive to change transport and mobility habits towards cheaper and affordable modes of transport. The impacts of the crisis have been spatially heterogeneous and socially diverse, and consequently mobility adaptation strategies depend on both territorial and social resilience. The present paper analyzes the main changes of mobility habits that occurred between 2004–2012 in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, covering the end of the era of economic growth, and the advent and unfolding of the economic crisis. The research uses travel survey data to understand how different population groups have adapted their mobility to the crisis, and how core and outer metropolitan areas have shaped the adaptation strategies of their inhabitants. The results show a general trend towards a rationalized use of private modes in favor of an increased use of shorter trips and non-motorized modes, but also show how social factors and urban forms interact to generate significant differences in mobility adaptation strategies.

Introducing urban vitality as a determinant of children's healthy mobility habits: a focus on activity engagement and physical activity

In this study we introduce urban vitality as a determining factor for both physical activity (PA) and activity engagement in children living in Barcelonas Metropolitan Region. We compare the physical outcomes of children living in vital and non-vital areas using mobility data taken from a travel survey. Chi-square, and association tests were used to compare the health outcomes of children living in vital and non-vital areas. Specifically, we measured for activity engagement, walking for transport, minutes of PA and adequacy to World Health Organization PA recommendations. Results are stratified by age and gender and reveal how living in a vital area can produce up to 54 minutes more of PA per week, with a difference of nearly 20% in the number of outdoor activities undertaken. Neighbourhood vitality promotes healthier mobility habits, as children living in buzzing areas tend to engage in more activities and spend more minutes walking for transport.