Modal Shift from Cars and Promotion of Walking by Providing Pedometers in Yokohama City, Japan
1
Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
2
Department of Risk Engineering, Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan
3
Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
4
Graduate School of Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(12), 2144; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16122144
Received: 16 April 2019 / Revised: 8 June 2019 / Accepted: 14 June 2019 / Published: 17 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walkable Neighborhoods: The Link between Public Health, Urban Design, and Transportation)
Mobility management is a transportation policy aiming to change travel behavior from car use to sustainable transportation modes while increasing people’s physical activity. Providing pedometers and visualizing step counts, popular interventions in public health practice, may constitute a mobility management program. However, the ease of modal shifts and changeability of walking habits differ across neighborhood environments. Using questionnaire data from 2023 middle-aged and older participants from Yokohama, Japan, in May 2017, this study examined (1) the relationship between the physical and social environments of Yokohama Walking Point Program participants who volunteered to use free pedometers and their modal shifts from cars to walking and public transport, and (2) whether participants’ modal shifts were associated with increases in step counts. Multivariate categorical regression analyses identified the frequency of greetings and conversations with neighbors as well as health motivation as important explanatory variables in both analyses. Participants living in neighborhoods far from railway stations and in neighborhoods with a high bus stop density tended to shift to walking and public transport, a modal shift that was highly associated with increased step counts. These results suggest that mobility management should be promoted in collaboration with public health and city planning professionals.
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Keywords:
mobility management; public transport; step counts; city planning; compact city; neighborhood
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hino, K.; Taniguchi, A.; Hanazato, M.; Takagi, D. Modal Shift from Cars and Promotion of Walking by Providing Pedometers in Yokohama City, Japan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2144.
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