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Urban heat exposure is an increasing health risk among urban dwellers. Many cities are considering accommodating active mobility, especially walking and biking, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, promoting active mobility without proper planning and transportation infrastructure to combat extreme heat exposure may cause more heat-related morbidity and mortality, particularly in future with projected climate change. This study estimated the effectiveness of active trip heat exposure mitigation under built environment and travel behavior change. Simulations of the Phoenix metro region's 624,987 active trips were conducted using the activity-based travel model (ABM), mean radiant temperature (T MRT , net human radiation exposure), transportation network, and local climate zones. Two scenarios were designed to reduce traveler exposure: one that focuses on built environment change (making neighborhoods cooler) and the other on travel behavior (switching from shorter travel time but higher exposure routes to longer travel time but cooler routes) change. Travelers experienced T MRT heat exposure ranging from 29°C to 76°C (84°F to 168°F) without environmental or behavioral change. Active trip T MRT exposures were reduced by an average of 1.2–3.7°C when the built environment was changed from a hotter to cooler design. Behavioral changes cooled up to 10 times more trips than changes in built environment changes. The marginal benefit of cooling decreased as the number of cooled corridors transformed increased. When the most traveled 10 km of corridors were cooled, the marginal benefit affected over 1,000 trips/km. However, cooling all corridors results in marginal benefits as low as 1 trip/km. The results reveal that heavily traveled corridors should be prioritized with limited resources, and the best cooling results come from environment and travel behavior change together. The results show how to surgically invest in travel behavior and built environment change to most effectively protect active travelers.
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This content will become publicly available on January 5, 2026
Effectiveness of Health and Environmental Information Provision in Promoting Sustainable Travel Modes
Community-wide adoption of sustainable travel modes such as transit, walking, and biking can alleviate congestion and emissions while improving air quality and public health. However, promoting these modes in the U.S. is challenging due to the high reliance on personal vehicles, which contribute $260 billion annually in social costs. Information about health and environmental externalities of personal vehicle usage is often unavailable to travelers at the time of decision-making. This study explores whether mobile app-based information provision about the health and environmental benefits of sustainable modes can meaningfully change traveler preferences. In a sample of 3,470 U.S. car users aged 55 years and under, balanced by gender, income, and census regions, this study tested the effectiveness of information provision over a 90-day summer season, targeting bus transit, walking, and biking. Results show that participants who received information on environmental benefits related to emission reductions were four times more likely to choose bus transit, while those informed about active health benefits related to calories burned were nearly seven times more likely to choose walking, compared to the control group. However, due to barriers such as safety concerns and lack of infrastructure, health and environmental information was not effective at promoting biking. The results may be scalable to a large segment of travelers in the U.S., but the study did not test the effectiveness of these interventions for travelers 55 and over due to sampling limitations. Low-cost mobile app-based implementation strategies for possible deployment of these interventions in U.S. communities are discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2125390
- PAR ID:
- 10616240
- Publisher / Repository:
- TRB
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Sustainable travel modes, mode choice, travel decision-making, information provision, health and environmental benefits
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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