INTRODUCTION: Mounting evidence documents the importance of urban form for active travel, but international studies could strengthen the evidence. The aim of the study was to document the strength, shape, and generalizability of relations of objectively measured built environment variables with transport-related walking and cycling. METHODS: This cross-sectional study maximized variation of environments and demographics by including multiple countries and by selecting adult participants living in neighborhoods based on higher and lower classifications of objectively measured walkability and socioeconomic status. Analyses were conducted on 12,181 adults aged 18-66 years, drawn from 14 cities across 10 countries worldwide. Frequency of transport-related walking and cycling over the last seven days was assessed by questionnaire and four objectively measured built environment variables were calculated. Associations of built environment variables with transport-related walking and cycling variables were estimated using generalized additive mixed models, and were tested for curvilinearity and study site moderation. RESULTS: We found positive associations of walking for transport with all the environmental attributes, but also found that the relationships was only linear for land use mix, but not for residential density, intersection density, and the number of parks. Our findings suggest that there may be optimum values in these attributes, beyond which higher densities or number of parks could have minor or even negative impact. Cycling for transport was associated linearly with residential density, intersection density (only for any cycling), and land use mix, but not with the number of parks. CONCLUSION: Across 14 diverse cities and countries, living in more densely populated areas, having a well-connected street network, more diverse land uses, and having more parks were positively associated with transport-related walking and/or cycling. Except for land-use-mix, all built environment variables had curvilinear relationships with walking, with a plateau in the relationship at higher levels of the scales.

Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems Department of Family Medicine and Public Health University of California San Diego USA

Centre for Design Innovation Swinburne University of Technology Australia

Centre for Research and Action in Public Health Health Research Institute University Canberra Australia

Department of Family Medicine and Public Health University of California San Diego USA

Department of Movement and Sports Sciences Ghent University Belgium

Department of Public Health School of Medicine Universidad de los Andes Bogota Colombia

Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics University of Southern Denmark Denmark

Institute of Active Lifestyle Palacký University Czech Republic

McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit The University of Melbourne Australia

Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health USA; Center for Nutrition and Health Research National Institute of Public Health Mexico

Pontiff Catholic University of Parana Brasil; Federal University of Parana Brasil

School of Community and Regional Planning and the School of Population and Public Health The University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada

School of Nutrition and Health Promotion Arizona State University USA

School of Public Health The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China; Centre of Physical Activity and Nutrition Research School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences Deakin University Australia

The Human Potential Centre Auckland University of Technology New Zealand

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