Adolescent Attitudes Towards Active Transportation: Bicycling in Youth in Retrospect from Adulthood

Bicycling as a form of ‘active transportation’ is an easy way to integrate physical activity into a person’s daily life. Bicycling in youth is especially beneficial because it provides physical activity at a time when youth obesity rates are soaring. Yet few studies have examined bicycling in adolescence. This study begins to fill that gap through an exploratory study of the formation of attitudes and practices regarding bicycling among residents of Davis, California, a mid-sized city in the United States where bicycling is normative. Participants, 25-65 years of age, responded to self-administered questionnaires and open-ended interview questions regarding their bicycling experience throughout their life course. In this paper, we focus on responses related to the “youth period”. Results showed that bicycling activity decreased during the youth period, as did positive attitudes towards bicycles and bicycling. High school youth, especially females, were particularly sensitive to negative images, even stigma, associated with bicycling. Bikes were abandoned for other modes of transportation, particularly walking and driving. To achieve a more bicycle-friendly society, communities must encourage bicycling and positive attitudes toward bicycling throughout the life course, particularly during the teen years when drop-off rates are high. This can be done by implementing bicycle promotion programs developed by and for teens as well as by implementing restrictive licensing or driving policies

Trip generation: Introduction to the special section

JTLU vol. 8, no. 1, pp 1-4 (2015)This paper introduces a set of articles about how transportation planners need better tools for estimating trip generation, and to develop better tools we need more data collection, especially methods that capture passenger trips by personal vehicles, transit, walking, and bicycling, as well as freight trips. With such data in hand, researchers would be able to develop models that both produce more accurate estimates of vehicle trips and generate trip estimates for other passenger modes and for freight. Such estimates would help to ensure adequate provision for these modes and not just for cars

Built environment assessment: Multidisciplinary perspectives.

Context:As obesity has become increasingly widespread, scientists seek better ways to assess and modify built and social environments to positively impact health. The applicable methods and concepts draw on multiple disciplines and require collaboration and cross-learning. This paper describes the results of an expert team׳s analysis of how key disciplinary perspectives contribute to environmental context-based assessment related to obesity, identifies gaps, and suggests opportunities to encourage effective advances in this arena. Evidence acquisition:A team of experts representing diverse disciplines convened in 2013 to discuss the contributions of their respective disciplines to assessing built environments relevant to obesity prevention. The disciplines include urban planning, public health nutrition, exercise science, physical activity research, public health and epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences, and economics. Each expert identified key concepts and measures from their discipline, and applications to built environment assessment and action. A selective review of published literature and internet-based information was conducted in 2013 and 2014. Evidence synthesis:The key points that are highlighted in this article were identified in 2014-2015 through discussion, debate and consensus-building among the team of experts. Results focus on the various disciplines׳ perspectives and tools, recommendations, progress and gaps. Conclusions:There has been significant progress in collaboration across key disciplines that contribute to studies of built environments and obesity, but important gaps remain. Using lessons from interprofessional education and team science, along with appreciation of and attention to other disciplines׳ contributions, can promote more effective cross-disciplinary collaboration in obesity prevention

Changes in E-bike Awareness and Consideration for Commute

This paper examines changes in e-bike awareness and consideration among commuters to the University of California, Davis campus using data from an annual travel survey. The analysis shows that awareness of e-bikes increased among commuters while consideration declined between 2019 and 2021. Awareness significantly increased among staff and undergraduate students and also increased among those who feel safe biking to campus. Consideration declined significantly among undergraduate students and commuters who bike to campus or use other modes

Cdc37 has distinct roles in protein kinase quality control that protect nascent chains from degradation and promote posttranslational maturation

Cdc37 is a molecular chaperone that functions with Hsp90 to promote protein kinase folding. Analysis of 65 Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein kinases (∼50% of the kinome) in a cdc37 mutant strain showed that 51 had decreased abundance compared with levels in the wild-type strain. Several lipid kinases also accumulated in reduced amounts in the cdc37 mutant strain. Results from our pulse-labeling studies showed that Cdc37 protects nascent kinase chains from rapid degradation shortly after synthesis. This degradation phenotype was suppressed when cdc37 mutant cells were grown at reduced temperatures, although this did not lead to a full restoration of kinase activity. We propose that Cdc37 functions at distinct steps in kinase biogenesis that involves protecting nascent chains from rapid degradation followed by its folding function in association with Hsp90. Our studies demonstrate that Cdc37 has a general role in kinome biogenesis

Commuting and wellbeing: A critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research

© 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This review provides a critical overview of what has been learnt about commuting’s impact on subjective wellbeing (SWB). It is structured around a conceptual model which assumes commuting can affect SWB over three time horizons: (i) during the journey; (ii) immediately after the journey; and (iii) over the longer term. Our assessment of the evidence shows that mood is lower during the commute than other daily activities and stress can be induced by congestion, crowding and unpredictability. People who walk or cycle to work are generally more satisfied with their commute than those who travel by car and especially those who use public transport. Satisfaction decreases with duration of commute, regardless of mode used, and increases when travelling with company. After the journey, evidence shows that the commute experience “spills over” into how people feel and perform at work and home. However, a consistent link between commuting and life satisfaction overall has not been established. The evidence suggests that commuters are generally successful in trading off the drawbacks of longer and more arduous commute journeys against the benefits they bring in relation to overall life satisfaction, but further research is required to understand the decision making involved. The evidence review points to six areas that warrant policy action and research: (i) enhancing the commute experience; (ii) increasing commute satisfaction; (iii) reducing the impacts of long duration commutes; (iv) meeting commuter preferences; (v) recognising flexibility and constraints in commuting routines and (vi) accounting for SWB impacts of commuting in policy making and appraisal

SB 743 Implementation by Local Governments for Land Use Projects

Caltrans 65A0686 Task Order 048 USDOT Grant 69A3551747114In 2018, pursuant to Senate Bill (SB) 743 (2013), the Governor\u2019s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and the California Natural Resources Agency promulgated regulations and technical guidance that eliminated automobile level of service (LOS) as a transportation impact metric for land development projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and replaced it with Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). The authors investigated how local governments have been implementing the LOS-to-VMT shift for land development projects, and how that differs from past practice. They also explored whether local governments monitor the actual VMT impacts from completed land use developments and what methods are available to do so. Their findings indicate that all responding jurisdictions acknowledged the mandatory LOS-to-VMT shift, but were in varying stages of implementing the shift. For those jurisdictions that had adopted VMT impact significance thresholds, most adhered closely to OPR\u2019s recommendations. They also mostly tried to use apples-to-apples methods of calculating baseline VMT levels (for setting thresholds) and estimating project-level VMT, often relying on travel demand model outputs for both. However, most jurisdictions gave short shrift to VMT monitoring. Another important aspect of SB 743 implementation is how LOS will continue to be used outside of CEQA. The authors found that jurisdictions uniformly continue to employ LOS outside of CEQA. However, those LOS analyses are not necessarily as comprehensive and expensive as they would have been for CEQA purposes. The authors found a consensus amongst their interviewees that swapping LOS for VMT could streamline development in urban areas