Figure 1.
Spatial Concordance Between Residential Density and Availability of Walkable Destinations.
Data from: the 2006 Canada Census; DMTI Spatial Inc., 2009; the City of Toronto, 2009; and the Ministry of Education, 2009. Residential density was calculated as the number of residential dwellings per square kilometer in all census disseminations blocks (DB) intersecting an 800 m buffer of a given DB's residentially-weighted centroid. Availability of walkable destinations was calculated as the number of retail and service destinations, including public recreation centers and schools, within an 800 m buffer of a given DB's residentially-weighted centroid. A DB was labeled ‘high’ for residential density or availability of walkable destinations if its value for that attribute placed it within the highest 2 quintiles for that attribute; similarly a DB was labeled as ‘low’ if its value placed it within the lowest 2 quintiles for that attribute.
Table 1.
Sociodemographic* and Built Environment Characteristics by Walkability Index Quintile**.
Table 2.
Transportation Behaviors* by Quintiles of Walkability and its Components**.
Table 3.
Prevalence of Overweight*, Obesity,* and Diabetes** by Quintiles of Walkability and its Components*** for adults aged 30–64 years.
Figure 2.
Transportation Behaviors and Health Outcomes by Residential Density and Availability of Walkable Destinations.
These figures depict the interaction between density and destinations in relation to transportation behaviours and related health outcomes. The average daily number of trips per person by walking or bicycling, public transit, and automobile were derived from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey (2006) for residents age 11 years and older. Proportion of the population aged 30 to 64 years that were overweight and obese was derived from 2003–2008 Canadian Community Health Survey data. Age-sex adjusted prevalence of diabetes mellitus among adults aged 30 to 64 years was derived from the Ontario Diabetes Database, 2009. Residential density was calculated using data from the 2006 Canada Census and availability of walkable destinations was calculated using data from DMTI Spatial Inc. (2009), the City of Toronto (2009), and the Ministry of Education (2009).