A Study of Travel Modes of Elementary School Students in Chapel Hill, NC
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 28, 2019
- Creator
-
Luukinen, Bryan John
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
- Abstract
- The proportion of youth who are overweight has more than doubled in the last 20 years, in part causing health professionals to declare an obesity epidemic in the United States. One of the main factors responsible for the epidemic of overweight and obesity is the sharp decline in physical activity and the corresponding increase in sedentary behavior in youth. Active Living by Design is a nation wide program that establishes innovative approaches to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies. Chapel Hill, NC, was selected as one of the 25 Active Living by Design Community Partnerships in October 2003. Since then, their partnership has worked to promote physical activity and active living inchools. In September2004, take-home questionnaires were distributed to all students at Ephesus Elementary, Estes Hills Elementary, Phillips Middle and Scroggs Elementary schools. The surveys were designed to investigate children's commuting habits and to gauge parents' perceptions of the traffic environment and concerns regarding their children's transportation behaviors. This research focused on a statistical and quantitative analysis of the data obtained from those surveys. The analysis included fitting 2 different statistical models to the data, one aimed at explaining why some children always walked or hiked and the other aimed at explaining why some children never walked or hiked to school; by implication, these models provided information on why children sometimes walked or hiked. The results of the logistic regression (logit) models along with supporting information from the questionnaires were used to explore policy alternatives for increasing the numbers of elementary school walkers and bikers in Chapel Hill. Findings suggest that structural interventions such as speedbumps to slow traffic and improved sidewalks will do little to increase walkers and bikers. Rather, the main needs are to dissuade parents from driving their children to school and not to rely on driving as the main mechanism for preventing children from arriving late.
- Date of publication
- August 2007
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Leith, David
- Ward, Dianne
- Lauria, Donald T.
- Degree
- Master of Science in Public Health
- Academic concentration
- Environmental Management and Policy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2007
- Language
- Deposit record
- 8daa46ae-58bd-4ddf-8097-0c44062f7d48
Relations
- Parents:
This work has no parents.