We need more active travel intervention research - why not travel plans?

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Active Lions: A Campaign to Promote Active Travel to a University Campus

PURPOSE

To outline the development, implementation, and evaluation of a multistrategy intervention to promote active transportation, on a large university campus.

DESIGN

Single group pilot study.

SETTING

A large university in the Northeastern United States.

PARTICIPANTS

University students (n = 563), faculty and staff (employees, n = 999) were included in the study.

INTERVENTION

The Active Lions campaign aimed to increase active transportation to campus for all students and employees. The campaign targeted active transport participation through the development of a smartphone application and the implementation of supporting social marketing and social media components.

MEASURES

Component-specific measures included app user statistics, social media engagement, and reach of social marketing strategies. Overall evaluation included cross-sectional online surveys preintervention and postintervention of student and employee travel patterns and campaign awareness.

ANALYSIS

Number of active trips to campus were summed, and the percentage of trips as active was calculated. T tests compared the differences in outcomes from preintervention to postintervention.

RESULTS

Students had a higher percentage of active trips postintervention (64.2%) than preintervention (49.2%; t = 3.32, P = .001), although there were no differences for employees (7.9% and 8.91%). Greater awareness of Active Lions was associated with greater active travel.

CONCLUSION

This multistrategy approach to increase active transportation on a college campus provided insight on the process of developing and implementing a campaign with the potential for impacting health behaviors among campus members.

Effects of a workplace travel plan intervention encouraging active travel to work: outcomes from a three-year time-series study

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effects of a three-year workplace travel plan intervention on increasing active travel to work.

STUDY DESIGN

A time-series study with staff was conducted in 2011 (n = 804), 2012 (n = 904), 2013 (n = 872) and 2014 (n = 687).

METHODS

A travel plan was implemented at a large, outer-suburban worksite in Sydney, Australia. Implementation was assessed by reviewing annual reports including travel plan actions and their status. Annual cross-sectional on-line surveys assessed primary outcomes which included change in the proportion of staff travelling to work via active modes. Multivariate logistic regression was used to adjust for confounders.

RESULTS

Strategies to encourage active travel were partially implemented. An average survey response rate was 23% (n = 817). The proportion of staff travelling actively to work increased by 4%-6% across intervention years compared to the baseline, and this increase was significant in 2012 (P = 0.04) and 2013 (P = 0.003). Compared to baseline, after adjusting for distances staff lived from work staff had 33% (95% CI 1%-74%) greater odds of travelling to work via active modes in 2012, and 50% (95% CI 15%-96%) greater odds in 2013. There was no evidence of change in physical activity levels.

CONCLUSIONS

A workplace travel plan which only included strategies to encourage active travel to work achieved small but significant increases in active travel. Workplace travel plans appear to be a promising way to increase active travel to work.