Research article
Walking Distance by Trip Purpose and Population Subgroups

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.03.015Get rights and content

Background

Walking distance is an important concept in the fields of transportation and public health. A distance of 0.25 miles is often used as an acceptable walking distance in U.S. research studies. Overall, research on the distance and duration of walking trips for different purposes and across different population groups remains limited.

Purpose

This study examines the prevalence of walking and distances and durations of walking trips for different purposes among U.S. residents.

Methods

The distances and durations of walking trips for different purposes across population groups were compared using nationally representative data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). Distance decay functions were used to summarize the distribution of walking distances and durations for different purposes and population subgroups. Data were analyzed in 2011.

Results

Sixteen percent of respondents had at least one daily walking trip. The mean and median values for walking distance were 0.7 and 0.5 miles, respectively. For walking duration, the mean and median values were 14.9 and 10 minutes. About 65% of walking trips were more than 0.25 miles in distance, and about 18% of walking trips were more than 1 mile. Large variations were found among various purposes for both distance and duration. The distances and durations of walking for recreation were substantially longer than those for other purposes. People with lower versus higher household income walked longer distances for work but shorter distances for recreation.

Conclusions

Only a small fraction of respondents walk, but trips longer than 0.25 miles are common. There is substantial variability in the distance and duration of walking trips by purpose and population subgroups. These differences have implications for developing strategies to increase physical activity through walking.

Introduction

Walking is associated with features of the built or social environment1, 2, 3, 4, 5 including proximity to destinations6, 7 as well as social features like safety or the presence of other walkers.8, 9 In the U.S., over the past 2 decades, 400 m (0.25 miles or a 5-minute walk) has sometimes been assumed to be the distance that “the average American will walk rather than drive,”10 and has been used as the value of acceptable walking distance in studies.10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 However, research has also suggested that walking trips longer than 400 m may not be uncommon, and features of buffers larger than 400 m have been linked to walking. For example, destinations within 1500 m were found to be associated with transport-related walking.12 The mean walking-trip length and duration in the U.S. population were estimated to be 0.62 miles and 16 minutes in 200116 and 0.61 miles and 12 minutes in 2009.17, 18

Despite the growth of research on the social and physical environmental features that may be associated with walking, there is little evidence on the amounts and durations of usual walking trips for different purposes among nationally representative samples of U.S. residents.12, 19 Agrawal and Schimek16 described variations in walking-trip distance by purposes and groups in a national U.S. sample in 2001. Pucher et al.17, 18 compared the frequency, duration, and distance of walking trips for U.S. adults between 2001 and 2009. Several other existing studies6, 20, 21 focused on specific areas, which restricts generalizability to other contexts.

It is difficult to obtain valid estimates of the distribution of walking distances from surveys because of the discrepancy between perceived distances and objective distances.22, 23, 24 Walking duration is sometimes used as a proxy for walking distance,22, 25 but this may introduce difficulties in estimating distances because of variations in walking speeds. Hence, comprehensive studies that describe variations in both distances and duration of walking trips are needed.26

Descriptive data on the distribution of the duration and distance of usual walking trips for various purposes are useful in identifying possible targets for interventions to increase daily walking. In addition, the variability observed across sociodemographic groups may provide clues regarding the most important drivers of walking in the population. The upper tail-ends of the distributions can also provide a sense of the walking distance and duration that are actually achievable under certain circumstances. The distributions of distance may also provide guidelines helpful in defining the geographic area (e.g., the maximum radius around each person's home) for which environmental features are most likely to be related to walking.

The current study used data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to examine the prevalence of walking and distances and durations of walking trips for various purposes among U.S. residents. The current work builds on prior works17, 18 describing person-level walking behavior by further examining the distribution of distance and duration for walking trips by purpose and person-level characteristics using distance decay functions.

Section snippets

Methods

The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) is a survey of household transportation covering the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the U.S. aged ≥5 years. The 2009 NHTS was conducted from March 2008 through May 2009 using computer-assisted random-digit-dialing telephone interviewing technology. The overall response rate was 19.8%. The full NHTS contains data for 308,901 people in 150,147 households and 1,167,321 trips. Data on one-way trips were obtained during a designated 24-hour

Results

Overall, 16.4% of respondents reported at least one valid walking trip per day, and 3.7% of respondents had three or more valid walking trips per day. Among those who took at least one walking trip per day, the mean number of walking trips was 2.25 and the mean cumulative distance walked was 1.64 miles. Table 1 shows the distribution of walking trips by distance and duration using the 2009 NHTS.

The mean and median values for walking distance (all purposes combined) were 0.7 (95% CI=0.11, 3.0)

Discussion

Using a large nationally representative sample, this research shows that 65% of all walking trips cover more than 0.25 miles and nearly one fifth were more than 1 mile in length. In addition, nearly one quarter lasted more than 15 minutes. These results highlight the fact that an important portion of the walking population does indeed walk substantial distances and durations as part of their daily activities. However, only 16% of respondents walked at all, and the median distance and duration

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