Number and Percentage of Linear Miles of Newly Constructed Sidewalks and Urban Trails
that Lie within Census Tracts with Low Levels of Leisure-time Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 18 Years or Older
Status
In calendar year 2021, over 19.2 miles of sidewalks and urban
trails were constructed within City of Austin full purpose jurisdiction.
About 8.5 miles of that construction fell within areas with low levels of adult
leisure-time physical activity. Detailed construction data can be found here.
Sidewalk and urban trail construction are guided by plans
adopted by City Council. The Urban Trail
Plan was adopted in 2014; the Sidewalk Plan in 2016. Prioritization of
community health considerations varies between the two plans. The
Sidewalks Plan explicitly considers health factors in how it prioritizes
sidewalks for construction. The current Urban Trails Plan does not
explicitly include community health factors in its prioritization scheme; it
concentrates on transportation and recreational uses for its system. The
Public Works Department (PWD) is updating both plans in calendar year 2022.
The process is planned to be completed by 2023 community health concerns will
be incorporated into the prioritization criteria for both plans. The
updated plans will be sent to City Council for approval and adoption once the
review process is completed.
Methodology
The Center for Disease Control’s 500 Cities Project provides
the data for this measure. The dataset includes 198 census tracts from the 2010
Census that include the City of Austin. This measure uses data released
in December 2019, which is for the 2017 calendar year. Austin census
tracts are divided into five equal groups based on the portion of the adult
population that has no leisure-time physical activity. Tracts with less
leisure-time physical activity are classified as higher risk. Lower risk
areas have more leisure-time physical activity.
Limitations
There are several limitations to consider when using this
measure:
- The
CDC data is two years old when released. While PWD is using the most
recent data available for comparisons, the data is already two years old,
and will continue to age over time.
- The
baseline is based on 2010 U.S. Census tracts associated with the City of
Austin by the CDC. These tracts do not include recent annexation
activity by the City of Austin. As a result, there are some areas of
the city’s current full purpose jurisdiction that are not included in this
measure.
- This
measure will rely on the 2019 released data for the near future. The
CDC releases a new dataset every year. However, a review of the
historical data shows the CDC’s data to be inconsistent, cycling between
relatively low and high levels of leisure-time physical activity for most
census tracts. The 2019 data release provides a consistent reference
point for measurement for the time being.
- PWD
will update the measure’s baseline in the future once plan updates are
completed and updated demographic data and new census tracts are released
following the 2020 census.
Trending
Construction
of sidewalks and urban trails are largely based on availability of
funding. Sidewalk construction is financed by 2016 and 2020 mobility
bonds and some smaller funds. Urban trail construction receives money
from both 2016, 2018, and 2020 bonds.
Both programs leverage the work of other agencies and
private developers to promote completion of their networks. Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Central Texas Regional Mobility
Authority (CTRMA) are two of the agencies that have constructed sidewalks or
urban trails. Construction by outside agencies and private developers may
occur in areas that are not considered high priorities.
One factor to keep in mind when evaluating construction
trends is the timeline involved in creating sidewalks and urban trails.
Sidewalk planning and construction is relatively straightforward and does not
require significant lead time to complete construction of new sidewalks.
Urban trails, however, require significant planning and engineering prior to
breaking ground for construction. It generally takes a minimum of six
years to build an urban trail from initial engineering studies through
completing construction. As a result, there may be years where little to
no construction is completed. These long timelines mean that it will take
a while for community health considerations to be reflected in urban trail
program outputs. Note: To see the underlying data for the chart, please
select the "View Source Data" link.
Additional Measure Insights
The
chart to the right shows the construction completed in high and very high risk
areas for each program over the last five calendar years. Overall,
construction has generally favored high and very high risk areas. One
reason is that the sidewalk program has built community health considerations
into how it prioritizes construction, and sidewalks are about 80% of total
construction from year to year. The slight decrease in overall performance in CY2021 is because
sidewalks construction temporarily pivoted to supporting the Safe Routes to
Schools projects that year.
Regarding
urban trails, long segments of urban trail built by outside agencies and
developers greatly impact these results. The drops in CY2018 and CY2019 were
due to construction of urban trail segments by outside agencies and developers
in lower risk areas, and the percentage increases in CY2021 are largely due to
CTRMA construction of a shared use path along US183, which is located in a high
risk area.
Measure Details and Definition
1) Definition: This measure shows the percentage of new urban trail and sidewalk construction each calendar that occurs in areas where there are low levels of leisure-time physical activity.
2) Calculation method: The sum of linear feet of sidewalks and urban trails constructed in a year is divided into the sum of linear feet of sidewalks and urban trails constructed in high and very high risk areas.
3) Data Collection Process: Data is collected by the urban trail and sidewalk construction programs.
4) Measure Target Calculation: There is no target set for this measure.
5) Frequency Measure is Reported: Annually (Calendar Year)
Date page was last updated: April 2022