Critical environmental factors for transportation cycling in children: A qualitative study using bike-alongs - 02/10/14

Doi : 10.1016/j.scispo.2014.08.031

A. Ghekiere ^1,^2,^⁎, J. Van Cauwenberg ^1,^2,³, B. de Geus ⁴, P. Clarys ¹, G. Cardon ², J. Salmon ⁵, I. De Bourdeaudhuij ², B. Deforche ^1,²
¹ Department of Human Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
² Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
³ Fund for Scientific Research Flanders, Belgium
⁴ Department of Human Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
⁵ Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Science, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

^⁎Corresponding author.

Résumé

Introduction

Environmental factors are found to influence transport-related physical activity, but have rarely been studied in relation with cycling for transport to various destinations in 10–12-year-old children [1]. The current qualitative study used ‘bike-alongs’ with children and parents to allow discussion of detailed environmental factors that may influence children's cycling for transport, while cycling in the participant's neighborhood.

Methods

Purposeful convenience sampling was used to recruit 35 children and one of their parents residing in (semi-)urban areas. Bike-alongs (i.e. discussing the physical environmental factors during cycling) were conducted to and from a randomly chosen destination (e.g. library) within a 15 minutes’ cycle trip in the participant's neighborhood [2]. Participants wore a GoPro camera to record environmental elements, which were subsequently discussed with participants. Arising themes were derived using a grounded theory approach.

Results

The discussed environmental factors were categorized under road safety, personal safety, cycling facilities, aesthetics, connectivity, distance to destination and weather. Across these categories many environmental factors were (in)directly linked to road safety. This was illustrated by detailed discussions of the children's visibility, familiarity with specific traffic situations, and degree of separation, width and legibility of cycle facilities.

Conclusions

Road safety is of major concern in this 10–12-year-old study population and their parents. Bike-alongs were able to identify new detailed and context-specific physical environmental factors, which could inform policy makers to promote children's cycling for transport. However, future studies should investigate whether hypothetical changes to such physical environmental features influence perceptions of safety and if this in turn could lead to changes in children's cycling for transport.

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Keywords : Cycling for transport, 10 to 12-year-old, Safety