Monitoring Daily Activities and Linking Physical Activity Levels Attributed to Transportation Mobility Choices and Built Environment

The relationship between transportation and health may play a significant role in improving the public’s wellbeing due to physical activities and health benefits of active transportation. Travel behavior researchers need to investigate the relationship between transportation mode choices and human health by observing traveler behaviors and their effect on physical activity and public health. This research identifies and categorizes the health outcomes from daily physical activity and daily travel activities by employing wearable devices with sensing and GPS tracking technology. In this study, the research team develops an integrated data collection and processing platform named “PASTA” to monitor the participant’s daily travel and physical activities. This platform automates data collection and integrates the big data processing of daily travel GPS trajectories from a mobile application designed by the research team with physical activity data from the Fitbit Charge 2/3. The study collects data from a total of 120 participants from Kalamazoo, MI, and Arlington, TX for a 6-month period. The PASTA platform requires many different analyses to observe the transportation impact on health outcomes; these include user activity/trip recognition and transportation mode detection. The study also explores the association between physical activity and an individual’s socioeconomic-body composition profile and proposes fusion into an integrated transportation and health impact model (ITHIM). Arlington participants use more active transportation (bicycle and walking) than Kalamazoo participants who use public transit more frequently. For activity/trip recognition, the study observes the highest accuracy for the combined Geohash-GIS approach with a dwell time of 5 minutes. The Random Forest model outperforms the other machine learning models in terms of transportation mode detection. The participant’s BMI, age, gender, and baseline active travel time show a direct effect on the transportation-related physical activity level. This research provides a method to quantify the amount of physical activity and health benefits associated with transportation activity.

• Record URL:
  http://www.wmich.edu/transportationcenter/trclc17-4
• Record URL:
  https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u883/2019/TRCLC_RR_17-04_0.pdf
• 

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $129969
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC 17-04

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities

  Western Michigan University
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49009-5316
• Project Managers:

  Dunn, Denise

• Performing Organizations:

  Western Michigan University

  1903 W. Michigan Avenue
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49008-5241
• Principal Investigators:

  Oh, Jun-Seok

  Mattingly, Stephen

  Al-Fuqaha, Ala

  Lee, Sangwoo

  Hyun, Kate

• Start Date: 20170815
• Expected Completion Date: 20190830
• Actual Completion Date: 20190830
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
• Subprogram: Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Activity choices; Built environment; Global Positioning System; Health; Mobility; Mode choice; Physical fitness; Transportation modes; Travel behavior
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01646251
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC 17-04
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 21 2017 2:02PM