Abstract

Physical activity in any means is important for all, irrespective of age and gender, however, shift from the adolescence to adulthood is considered to be more susceptible to gain obesity and health risks. It is agreed that physical activity patterns, established in young adult life stage, are likely to endure for a long time. So, to promote active travel behavior and improve health condition of the future adults, young adult is an important life stage to intervene. The purpose of this study is to explore how individual, social, and environmental factors do influence the commuting behavior of emerging adults primarily. Grenoble city is selected as a case for the study. Two institutions (Institut d'Urbanisme de Grenoble (IUG) and Institut de géographie alpine (IGA)) of Université Grenoble Alpes and École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Grenoble (ENSAG) are selected to study the students aged 18 to 25. The association between different factors and active travel behavior of the students are analyzed using both spatial and statistical analysis techniques. For spatial analysis, a face to face interview is conducted through spatial mapping (geocoding) and three spatial attributes (land use, land use mix and public transport service area) are considered as the basis for the analysis. For statistical analysis, in addition with the face to face interview, an online questionnaire survey is conducted, focused on three types of factors (socio-demographic, travel, and environmental factors) associated with the active travel behavior of young adults. Both descriptive statistics and binary logit model are used for this purpose. The findings from these two analyses reveal that there are significant relationships exist between different socio-demographic, travel and environmental factors and students’ active travel behaviors. Besides, this study also explores the potentiality of different alternative strategies adopted in the city of Grenoble and gaps of these interventions from the perspective of students. Therefore, this research justifies the importance of young adult life stage for the promotion of active transportation and potentiality of their participation in research works.