Move on Bikes Program: A Community-Based Physical Activity Strategy in Mexico City

Catalina Medina, Martin Romero-Martinez, Sergio Bautista-Arredondo, Simón Barquera and Ian Janssen
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Catalina Medina: Department of Physical Activity and Healthy Lifestyles, Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico City 14080, Mexico
Martin Romero-Martinez: Center for Research in Evaluation and Surveys, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico City 14080, Mexico
Sergio Bautista-Arredondo: Division of Health Economics, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Mexico
Simón Barquera: Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Mexico
Ian Janssen: Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Obesity, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Open streets programs are free and multisectoral programs in which streets are temporally closed allowing access to walkers, runners, rollerbladers, and cyclists. The Move on Bikes program (by its name in Spanish Muévete en Bici) (MEB) consists of 55 km of interconnected streets in middle-high income areas of Mexico City. There is scarce evidence on the evaluation of this program in Mexico. The purposes of this study were to estimate the participation, physical activity levels among the MEB participants, and the association of the frequency of participation with sociodemographic, physical, and program characteristics. Methods: From October 2017 to July 2018, six hundred seventy-nine MEB participants were surveyed using a questionnaire that contains sociodemographic, physical, and program characteristics. A wide-angle video camera was used to estimate the average speed of each activity per event per participant. Based on the information collected by the program authorities and survey interviews, we estimated the number of participants per event. Results: On a typical MEB program day, 21,812 people participated. MEB program users accumulated an average of 221 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per typical Sunday and 88.4% accumulated at least 150 min of MVPA. In total, 29.6% of users attended the program every Sunday. Those who were more likely to attend the program frequently included: men, those aged 41 to 64 years old, users classified as very and sufficiently active, those that used active transportation to travel to the program, and participants that came alone. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that the MEB program adds an extra 71 min/week of MVPA to more than 20,000 users.

Keywords: physical activity; ciclovias; open streets; community interventions; Mexico (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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