Understanding Melbourne's sedentary transport patterns using household travel surveys

Sedentary behaviour (time spent sitting down) is associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Specifically, periods of uninterrupted sedentary time (called sedentary bouts) are particularly bad. Research shows that that these health issues are independent of those caused by a lack of exercise. As such there is a need to look at the sedentary transport patterns of cities to understand why long bouts of sedentary behaviour occur. This research focused on identifying factors which contribute to sedentary time to see if some areas of society were worse off than others. Using travel information from the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA), we can analyse patterns of sedentary behaviour across Melbourne. By understanding these patterns, we hope to inform policy development in health and transport. Commuting to work was chosen as a starting point for understanding Melbourne’s sedentary transport patterns. Using data from household travel surveys to look at public health is a new technique with no work yet published. As such, this research is also an exploration into how household travel surveys may be used to better understand the effect of travel patterns on health.

• Authors:
  • Burden, A
• Conference:
  • Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR), 33rd, 2015, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Publication Date: 2015-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research: CAITR 2015: 12-13 February 2015, The University of Melbourne

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Data analysis; Health; Mode choice; Travel behavior; Work trips
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Melbourne (Australia)
• ATRI Terms: Data analysis; Health; Journey to work; Modal choice; Travel behaviour
• ITRD Terms: 1145: Transport mode
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01556904
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 13 2015 9:55AM