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Neighborhood sociodemographics and change in built infrastructure
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Neighborhood sociodemographics and change in built infrastructure

Jana A. Hirsch, Geoffrey F. Green, Marc Peterson, Daniel A. Rodriguez and Penny Gordon-Larsen
Journal of urbanism, v 10(2), pp 181-197
03 Apr 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2016.1212914
PMID: 28316645
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc5353850View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

bicycle GIS income Neighborhood public transportation race
While increasing evidence suggests an association between physical infrastructure in neighborhoods and health outcomes, relatively little research examines how neighborhoods change physically over time and how these physical improvements are spatially distributed across populations. This paper describes the change over 25 years (1985-2010) in bicycle lanes, off-road trails, bus transit service and parks, and spatial clusters of changes in these domains relative to neighborhood sociodemographics in four US cities that are diverse in terms of geography, size, and population. Across all four cities we identified increases in bicycle lanes, off-road trails, and bus transit service, with spatial clustering in these changes that related to neighborhood sociodemographics. Overall, we found evidence of positive changes in physical infrastructure commonly identified as supportive of physical activity. However, the patterning of infrastructure change by sociodemographic change encourages attention to the equity in infrastructure improvements across neighborhoods.

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42 citations in Scopus

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