Kristen Day

Measuring the Built Environment for Physical Activity: State of the Science

Physical inactivity is one of the most important public health issues in the U.S. and internationally. Increasingly, links are being identified between various elements of the physical-or built-environment and physical activity. To understand the impact of the built environment on physical activity, the development of high-quality measures is essential. Three categories of built environment data are being used: (1) perceived measures obtained by telephone interview or self-administered questionnaires; (2) observational measures obtained using systematic observational methods (audits); and (3) archival data sets that are often layered and analyzed with GIS. This review provides a critical assessment of these three types of built-environment measures relevant to the study of physical activity. Among perceived measures, 19 questionnaires were reviewed, ranging in length from 7 to 68 questions. Twenty audit tools were reviewed that cover community environments (i.e., neighborhoods, cities), parks, and trails. For GIS-derived measures, more than 50 studies were reviewed. A large degree of variability was found in the operationalization of common GIS measures, which include population density, land-use mix, access to recreational facilities, and street pattern. This first comprehensive examination of built-environment measures demonstrates considerable progress over the past decade, showing diverse environmental variables available that use multiple modes of assessment. Most can be considered first-generation measures, so further development is needed. In particular, further research is needed to improve the technical quality of measures, understand the relevance to various population groups, and understand the utility of measures for science and public health.

California's Safe Routes to School program: impacts on walking, bicycling, and pedestrian safety

Abstract This article evaluates Californias pioneering Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program, which funds traffic improvement projects designed to improve safety for childrens walking and bicycling to school and to increase the number of children who do so. Through surveys of parents and observations of vehicle and pedestrian traffic before and after project construction, we examined the impacts of 10 traffic improvement projects funded through the SR2S program. We measured changes in perceived safety and in safety-related behaviors associated with childrens trips to school, and examined changes in the number of children walking and bicycling following these improvements. Five of the 10 traffic improvement projects we evaluated showed evidence of a successful impact. The findings have implications for Californias SR2S program and for similar initiatives throughout the country.

Active living and social justice: Planning for physical activity in low-income, Black, and Latino communities

Abstract The U.S. faces rising rates of overweight and obesity. Active living-urban planning and design to promote physical activity—has emerged as a strategy to combat growing obesity. The active living movement initially targeted mostly middle-class, suburban communities. In this article, I argue that planning for active living must especially address low-income, Black, and Latino communities, where obesity and related health risks are greatest and resources least available. First I review the problem of obesity and related health conditions among low-income, Black, and Latino populations in the U.S., and identify the role of insufficient physical activity in this problem. I then examine physical environment and other factors that shape opportunities for physical activity in low-income communities and communities of color. Finally, I identify strategies that may help to promote active living in urban settings to better serve these communities.

New Urbanism and the Challenges of Designing for Diversity

New Urbanism is increasingly applied to revitalize diverse urban neighborhoods. New Urbanism relies on an ideal of “community” that makes its suitability for these contexts questionable. This article examines the use of New Urbanism to revitalize neighborhoods with diverse populations, investigating the following concerns: (1) physical changes may not be the best solutions for the social problems that often face such neighborhoods, (2) New Urbanist ideas may have different meanings to different groups of neighborhood residents, (3) New Urbanist neighborhood renovation may displace low-income residents, and (4) New Urbanist participatory design processes may not accommodate diversity. The article presents findings from a case study of the Westside of the city of Costa Mesa, California. Recommendations suggest alternative planning and design strategies to support and reinvigorate diverse, urban neighborhoods.

Conceptualizing Women's Fear of Sexual Assault on Campus A Review of Causes and Recommendations for Change

Sexual assault is increasingly recognized as an urgent and pervasive problem on university campuses. Womens fear of sexual assault is similarly significant and widespread. Growing university assault prevention efforts on campus have often over-looked the negative implications of womens fear. Depending on their onus of responsibility, university sexual assault prevention strategies may implicitly reinforce gendered social norms for public behavior by increasing womens fear in public spaces, with consequent detrimental effects for womens positive experience on campus. Based on a conceptualization of fear of sexual assault as a form of social control, this review discusses societal, individual, and university/campus factors (organizational, social, and especially physical) associated with womens fear of assault on campus. In conclusion, it suggests university assault prevention strategies that may also reduce womens fear.

Embassies and Sanctuaries: Women's Experiences of Race and Fear in Public Space

Womens fear in public space has received considerable scholarly and popular attention. Such fear is typically constructed from a white perspective, which reinforces prejudice and ignores the role of race in the experience of fear. Womens race prejudice and race fear are shaped and reflected in their use of the physical environment. Characteristics of the physical environment further shape these experiences. In this paper I investigate middle-class white, black and Hispanic womens experiences of race and fear in public spaces in Orange County, California. I present a typology of public spaces in which women encounter racialized others, and I map race fear onto these spaces. Experiences of fear and comfort in public space are examined, and I consider the interaction of race, class, and gender with place type and location. Particular attention is given to the form of these interactions in a post-suburban landscape.

Confrontation and loss of control: Masculinity and men's fear in public space

Abstract Existing research typically examines fear in public space from womens perspectives. To date, environment–behavior researchers have largely overlooked mens fear in public space, and the role of masculinity in shaping mens perceptions of fear and safety. This paper investigates the intersections of traditional, dominant masculinity—or masculinism—and mens fear in public space, based on interviews with 82 undergraduate men students. Masculinism features qualities such as control, competition, aggression, and physical strength. We argue that, for many men, public spaces and situations that challenge this masculinist identity may generate fear. Similarly, spaces and situations that promote feelings of safety do so, in part, by bolstering this identity. We employ the lens of masculinity to explore mens feelings of fear of the unknown, heightened awareness and safety, fear of confrontation, and safety in numbers. Conclusions examine implications for the development of masculinity and recommendations for future research.

The Street Level Built Environment and Physical Activity and Walking: Results of a Predictive Validity Study for the Irvine Minnesota Inventory

The Irvine Minnesota Inventory (IMI) was designed to measure environmental features that may be associated with physical activity and particularly walking. This study assesses how well the IMI predicts physical activity and walking behavior and develops shortened, validated audit tools. A version of the IMI was used in the Twin Cities Walking Study, a research project measuring how density, street pattern, mixed use, pedestrian infrastructure, and a variety of social and economic factors affect walking. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess the predictive value of the IMI. We find that while this inventory provides reliable measurement of urban design features, only some of these features present associations with increased or decreased walking. This article presents two versions of shortened scales—a prudent scale, requiring association with two separate measures of a physical activity or walking behavior, and a moderate scale, requiring association with one measure of physical activity or walking. The shortened scales provide built environment audit instruments that have been tested both for inter-rater reliability and for associations with physical activity and walking. The results are also useful in showing which built environment variables are more reliably associated with walking for travel—characteristics of the sidewalk infrastructure, street crossings and traffic speeds, and land use are more strongly associated with walking for travel, while factors that measure aesthetics are typically less strongly associated with walking for travel.

Being Feared: Masculinity and Race in Public Space

Research on fear of crime typically examines the perceptions of those who fear, emphasizing womens experiences of vulnerability in public space. In this paper, I invert this practice to examine instead mens experiences of being feared in public spaces. Drawing on interviews with 82 male college students, I use a social constructionist approach to examine how mens experiences of being feared interact with mens formation of racial identities and the racialization of public places. Fear is a key mechanism for justifying and maintaining race privilege and exclusion. The experience and interpretation of being feared (or not feared) in public space intersects with mens construction of gender and race identities, and the ways that men assign racial meanings to public places. This paper examines these processes and proposes strategies for challenging fear and the exclusion it supports.

Revising the senior walking environmental assessment tool

BACKGROUND The Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool (SWEAT), an instrument for measuring built environmental features associated with physical activity of older adults, was revised to create an easier-to-use tool for use by practitioners and community members. METHODS Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the modified instrument (SWEAT-R) was assessed in Portland, Oregon in 2007. Five trained observers audited street segments in 12 neighborhoods, resulting in 361 pairs of audits, including 63 repeated audits. RESULTS Overall, 88% and 75% of items assessed had good or excellent inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, respectively. The revised instrument required less time to complete than the original instrument, while obtaining more information. CONCLUSION SWEAT-R provides easy to gather, reliable data for use in community-based audits of built environment in relation to walking among older adults.