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• 1. [Article] Understanding School Travel: How Residential Location Choice and the Built Environment Affect Trips to School

  This project investigates issues related to parents’ decisions about children’s school transportation. This has become an important area of research due to the growing concerns that increased reliance ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Understanding School Travel: How Residential Location Choice and the Built Environment Affect Trips to School Author: Yang, Yizhao, Schlossberg, Marc, Parker, Robert, Johnson, Bethany Year: 2010 This project investigates issues related to parents’ decisions about children’s school transportation. This has become an important area of research due to the growing concerns that increased reliance on private automobile in school travel has led to adverse health impacts on children and negative impacts on environment. This study examines school transportation in the context of where families live and how families make decisions about school travel in the process of choosing their residence. Using a middle-sized school district in Oregon State, we conducted a 5500-household survey and a number of interviews and focus groups. The study shows that parents considered school transportation in their residential location process; their intention to allow their children to walk or bike to school at this stage had significant impacts on later school travel behavior. While acknowledging school travel was not a priority when choosing a residential location, parents with strong preference for children walking or biking to school used residential location process consciously to live closer to school and in more walkable neighborhoods; but parents were also limited by housing opportunities around schools and in the community. This research suggests the needs for stronger coordination between community land us planning and school planning, and stronger emphasis on changing parents’ attitudes toward children walking or biking to school in programs around safe routes to schools. Title: Understanding School Travel: How Residential Location Choice and the Built Environment Affect Trips to School Author: Yang, Yizhao, Schlossberg, Marc, Parker, Robert, Johnson, Bethany Year: 2010 This project investigates issues related to parents’ decisions about children’s school transportation. This has become an important area of research due to the growing concerns that increased reliance on private automobile in school travel has led to adverse health impacts on children and negative impacts on environment. This study examines school transportation in the context of where families live and how families make decisions about school travel in the process of choosing their residence. Using a middle-sized school district in Oregon State, we conducted a 5500-household survey and a number of interviews and focus groups. The study shows that parents considered school transportation in their residential location process; their intention to allow their children to walk or bike to school at this stage had significant impacts on later school travel behavior. While acknowledging school travel was not a priority when choosing a residential location, parents with strong preference for children walking or biking to school used residential location process consciously to live closer to school and in more walkable neighborhoods; but parents were also limited by housing opportunities around schools and in the community. This research suggests the needs for stronger coordination between community land us planning and school planning, and stronger emphasis on changing parents’ attitudes toward children walking or biking to school in programs around safe routes to schools. Close

• 2. [Article] Developing High-Resolution Descriptions of Urban Heat Islands: A Public Health Imperative

  Extreme heat events affect the most vulnerable human populations and are a lethal health hazard to urban dwellers globally; in the United States, extreme heat causes more deaths annually than all other ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Developing High-Resolution Descriptions of Urban Heat Islands: A Public Health Imperative Author: Voelkel, Jackson, Shandas, Vivek, Haggerty, Brendon Year: 2016 Extreme heat events affect the most vulnerable human populations and are a lethal health hazard to urban dwellers globally; in the United States, extreme heat causes more deaths annually than all other weather events and natural hazards combined (1). Previous studies described urban heat islands as isolated, static, monolithic areas of cities. We challenged this contention by hypothesizing that diurnal temperature cycles and diverse landscape features create variation in places that amplify heat (2). A temporal description of urban heat islands would identify populations that are susceptible to heat stress, particularly at night, when most people are asleep and unable to regulate internal body temperatures. If public health agencies are to prevent illness and death caused by heat, they will need to know which populations are most vulnerable to heat stress, particularly at night; such information can guide timely interventions (3). Researchers lack high-resolution tools for identifying neighborhoods and households where extreme weather events might have profound and fatal effects on human health. The objective of this study was to use spatial analytics at previously unattained resolutions to answer the following research question: to what extent can we observe temporal variation in urban heat islands and the physical features that induce heat stress? Title: Developing High-Resolution Descriptions of Urban Heat Islands: A Public Health Imperative Author: Voelkel, Jackson, Shandas, Vivek, Haggerty, Brendon Year: 2016 Extreme heat events affect the most vulnerable human populations and are a lethal health hazard to urban dwellers globally; in the United States, extreme heat causes more deaths annually than all other weather events and natural hazards combined (1). Previous studies described urban heat islands as isolated, static, monolithic areas of cities. We challenged this contention by hypothesizing that diurnal temperature cycles and diverse landscape features create variation in places that amplify heat (2). A temporal description of urban heat islands would identify populations that are susceptible to heat stress, particularly at night, when most people are asleep and unable to regulate internal body temperatures. If public health agencies are to prevent illness and death caused by heat, they will need to know which populations are most vulnerable to heat stress, particularly at night; such information can guide timely interventions (3). Researchers lack high-resolution tools for identifying neighborhoods and households where extreme weather events might have profound and fatal effects on human health. The objective of this study was to use spatial analytics at previously unattained resolutions to answer the following research question: to what extent can we observe temporal variation in urban heat islands and the physical features that induce heat stress? Close