Healthy cities, healthy students: Macroscale-built environment and active commuting to university in Chile and Spain

Considering the daily interaction between university students and their campuses, specific built environment features of campuses could be important for the adoption of a more active and sustainable lifestyle among students. We describe and explore the macro-scale characteristics of the built environment around six university campuses in Chile and Spain and examines its association with active and sustainable commuting among university students. A total of 1419 Chilean and Spanish university students self-reported their travel behaviours, and eight built environment features linked to more active and sustainable commuting were evaluated using the QGIS software. The main mode of travel was motorised transport, with significant differences by campus ( p < 0.001). The built environment features of university campuses were heterogeneous irrespective of university or country affiliation, resulting in low or high composite scores of the built environment features. In Chile, the odds of using active commuting were 4.76 times higher on one campus with higher activity-friendly environment compared to the campus with lower activity-friendly environment ( p < 0.001). In Spain, the odds of using active commuting were more than 3.55 times higher at two campuses with higher activity-friendly compared to the campus with lower activity-friendly environment (both, p < 0.001). Findings suggest that the built environment may be associated with sustainable commuting among university students in Chile and Spain. This highlights the importance and the need for transport and urban planning policies that foster activity-friendly campus environments to promote sustainable travel, presenting a challenge and an opportunity for both transport geography research and public health interventions.