The Family Activity Study is a before-and-after study of the influence of Neighborhood Greenways on the physical activity of families with children (Neighborhood Greenways are also known as “bicycle boulevards”, and are calm local streets designed to encourage walking and bicycling). Members of participating families wore GPS and activity monitors and took detailed travel and physical activity attitude and perception surveys at points in time two years apart. Portland has been building a number of Greenways around the city in recent years. Families were recruited from areas where Greenways were planned to be built in between data collection periods, or from control routes.
This study seeks to understand how the Neighborhood Greenways impacted the travel behavior and physical activity of participating families, and, with over 38,000 trips recorded from 335 families, provides a wealth of data to investigate the travel choices, activity, and attitudes of Portland families.