noticeable that your latest research have focus on the link between public health. Would you mind introducing any of your latest projects?
Steiner One of my latest projects has been to understand the travel needs of an aging population. I have been participating in a research consortium called Vital by Design that brings together researchers from public health, architecture, interior design, housing, geography and urban planning to look at aging in the residential context. We are looking at the social connectedness, active living and indoor quality. I have been involved in two projects with my students to understand various aspects of aging. The first study examines the activities of members of several bicycle clubs in a master-planned community, including the purpose of the travel, the distances traveled each week and involvement in crashes. The second study examines the trip making patterns of participants in a pilot project in which older adults can use Uber to get to various activities in the Gainesville community.
Yoon I have noted that you have deep interests in global interactions including European and Asian planning infrastructure. Based on your diverse disciplines, would you please have any recommendations for urban planners in South Korea most need to consider or focus on?
Steiner Across the world, we are seeing increases in the rates of both childhood and
adult obesity. People who are obese, compared to normal weight persons, are at higher risk for a number of other diseases, such as heart disease, cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and some cancers.
Obesity is a complex health challenge because losing weight has social, cultural and genetic factors that affect food intake, physical activity, and physical inactivity. The built environment of neighborhoods – the density and mix of land uses and street connectivity – can limit the opportunity for residents to participate in active transportation in their community in a variety of ways. Wide roadways that emphasize speed over access can present a barrier to pedestrians safely walking to destinations in a neighborhood. Beyond the connection to active living, if we aren’t careful about how we development the built environment we can have a land use pattern that has other negative health effects, including noise, air pollution and negative mental health outcomes.
Yoon What topics in planning would you like to learn more about in the year ahead and why?
How do you keep learning?
Steiner In the last couple of years I have become interested in the old historic industrial suburbs. Much of the research on suburbs in the United States focuses on the so-called streetcar suburbs that developed into an urban form that includes a walkable,
transit-다양한 활동에 대한 접근성, 교통과 노령화 등과 같은 신체 활동 및 접근 가능성에 영향을 미치는 정책과 관련된 연구에 중점을 두었습니다. 향후 연구에서는 활동적인 생활과 이에 부합한 활발한 교통수단을 뛰어 넘어 건강의 지속가능성과 관련된 계획 문제와 도시를 설 계하는 방법, 또 환경 및 지역사회의 건강까지 영향을 미칠 수 있는 연구분야로 확대하기를 희망합니다.
윤 인터뷰에 시간을 내주셔서 감사합니다. 한국의 도시계획 연구자들에게 다양한 연구 및 전망에 대해 배울 수 있는 좋은 기회였습니다.
루스 스타이너 교수의 주요 논문
Alluri, P., Gan, A., Diaz, A., and Steiner, R. 2015. Safety impacts of access management features near roundabouts.
The Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2517: 28-36.
Blanco, A., Steiner, R. L., Kim, J., and Chung, H. 2012. The effects of impact fees in urban form and congestion in Florida. The Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2297: 38-46.
Heinen, E., Steiner, R. L., and Guers, K. T. 2015. Special issue: Built environment and travel behaviour: introductory essay. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research 15, no.1: 1-5.
Kim, J., Steiner, R. L., and Yang, Y. 2014. The evolution of transportation concurrency and urban development pattern in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Urban Affairs Review 50, no.5: 672-701.
McDonald, N. C., McGrane, A., Rodgman, E., Steiner, R. L., Palmer, M., and Lytle, B. 2015. Assessing multimodal school travel safety in North Carolina. Accident Analysis & Prevention 74: 126-32.
McDonald, N., R. Steiner, M. Palmer, A. Bullock, V. Sisiopiku, and B. Lytle. 2014. Costs of school transportation:
Quantifying the fiscal impacts of encouraging walking and bicycling for school travel. Transportation 43, no.1:
159-175.
McDonald, N. C., Steiner, R. L., Lee, C., Smith, T. R., Zhu, X., and Yang, Y. 2014. Impact of the safe routes to school program on walking and bicycling. Journal of the American Planning Association 80, no.2: 153-67.
Michalaka, D., Xu, R., Page, J. J., Steiner, R. L., Washburn, S., and Elefteriadou, L. 2016. Roundabouts as a form of access management. The Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2556: 1-9.
McDonald, N., Barth, P., and Steiner, R. 2013. Assessing the distribution of safe routes to school program funds:
2005-2011. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 45, no.4: 201-406.
Srinivasan, S., Provost, R., and Steiner, R. L. 2013. Modeling the land-use correlates of vehicle-trip lengths. Journal of Transport and Land Use 6, no.2: 59-75.
oriented neighborhood. These streetcar suburbs represented a separation of work from home with the types of neighborhoods that have some of the characteristics, like high density, mix of land use and street connectivity, to support pedestrian-oriented environments. In industrial suburbs built in the US between the 1880s and 1920s, the residences were located around factory so the separation between work and home was not possible. I have been interested in a couple of questions. To what extent were industrial suburbs created in response to cities passing regulations to eliminate the negative aspects of industries – noise, sounds and vibrations? The second question relates to the housing for workers in industrial suburbs. In communities that were not company towns, who built the housing? Finally, what has happened to old industrial suburbs as industries have left the US?
Yoon Lastly, would you please introduce some of your future research plans, either solid projects or broad directions, or both?
Steiner As you can see from the projects I have discussed in response to the earlier questions, I have diverse research interests.
As director of the Center for Health and the Built Environment, I am exploring a diversity of topics that connect health and the built environment. In the past, I have focused on research related to policies that affect physical
activities and accessibility, such as school siting, land development and children’s travel patterns, access to various activities, and aging and transportation. In my research, I hope to expand the range of health impacts that expand beyond active living and active transportation to other planning issues related to health and sustainability and the environmental and community health impacts of how we design our cities.
Yoon Thank you for sharing your time for this interview. It was a great approach to learn about your research and perspectives to inform urban planners in South Korea.
기요미즈테라의 야사카탑
안인향 | 도시계획학 박사, 서울시 한옥조성과(sonnet70@seoul.go.kr)