Active travel and the built environment: A life-course perspective

Active travel has many health, environmental, economic, and social benefits, yet it is not clear how life events and factors from the built environment influence active travel over time. To address this gap and provide causal and dynamic evidence, this study used a 5-year longitudinal dataset from the Netherlands Mobility Panel and applied a Dynamic Bayesian Network approach to explore the temporal relationships between life events, built environment factors and active travel frequency, including frequency of conventional bike, e-bike, and walking. Results show that life events play a much more important role in influencing active travel frequency than the built environment factors. In addition, owning an e-bike has the greatest impact on cycling frequency, impeding conventional bike use and increasing e-bike use. Furthermore, childbirth has different temporal effects on the frequency of all three types of active travel. Moreover, workplace change negatively impacts e-bike use both concurrently and over time. These findings provide empirical evidence for urban planning and policymaking to promote active travel. • Life events have larger impacts than built environment factors on active travel. • Owing an e-bike greatly impedes conventional bike use but increases e-bike use. • Childbirth has different concurrent, lead and lagged effects on active travel. • Workplace change negatively impacts e-bike use both concurrently and over time.