Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers

Conventional wisdom and previous research hold that walking and bicycling for transportation purposes are not common outside of urban areas. This hypothesis is based on a binary classification of land area into two categories, urban and rural. This paper applies a novel seven-category typology of rurality to the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to investigate the true prevalence of travel behavior in multiple types of rural areas. The authors find that walking and bicycling are more common in rural areas than previously thought. The paper tests additional hypotheses about trip purpose and trip length to understand more about these “active” trips. These results have direct relevance for the work of planners, decision-makers, and walking and bicycling advocates in rural areas and at the federal level.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Sonenklar, Daniel
  • Hadden-Loh, Tracy
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycling; Rural areas; Rural travel; Travel behavior; Trip length; Trip purpose; Walking
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01473545
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-2951
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 22 2013 3:39PM