Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B9, Canada.
McGill School of Environment, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B9, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2019 Sep 10;19(1):1246. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7460-3.
Altering micro-scale features of neighborhood walkability (e.g., benches, sidewalks, and cues of social disorganization or crime) could be a relatively cost-effective method of creating environments that are conducive to active living. Traditionally, measuring the micro-scale environment has required researchers to perform observational audits. Technological advances have led to the development of virtual audits as alternatives to observational field audits with the enviable properties of cost-efficiency from elimination of travel time and increased safety for auditors. This study examined the reliability of the Virtual Systematic Tool for Evaluating Pedestrian Streetscapes (Virtual-STEPS), a Google Street View-based auditing tool specifically designed to remotely assess micro-scale characteristics of the built environment.
We created Virtual-STEPS, a tool with 40 items categorized into 6 domains (pedestrian infrastructure, traffic calming and streets, building characteristics, bicycling infrastructure, transit, and aesthetics). Items were selected based on their past abilities to predict active living and on their feasibility for a virtual auditing tool. Two raters performed virtual and field audits of street segments in Montreal neighborhoods stratified by the Walkscore that was used to determine the 'walking-friendliness' of a neighborhood. The reliability between virtual and field audits (n = 40), as well as inter-rater reliability (n = 60) were assessed using percent agreement, Cohen's Kappa statistic, and the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient.
Virtual audits and field audits (excluding travel time) took similar amounts of time to perform (9.8 versus 8.2 min). Percentage agreement between virtual and field audits, and for inter-rater agreement was 80% or more for the majority of items included in the Virtual-STEPS tool. There was high reliability between virtual and field audits with Kappa and ICC statistics indicating that 20 out of 40 (50.0%) items had almost perfect agreement and 13 (32.5%) items had substantial agreement. Inter-rater reliability was also high with 17 items (42.5%) with almost perfect agreement and 11 (27.5%) items with substantial agreement.
Virtual-STEPS is a reliable tool. Tools that measure the micro-scale environment are important because changing this environment could be a relatively cost-effective method of creating environments that are conducive to active living.
改变邻里步行环境的微观特征（例如，长凳、人行道以及社会无序或犯罪的提示）可能是创造有利于积极生活的环境的一种相对具有成本效益的方法。传统上，测量微观环境需要研究人员进行观察性审计。技术进步导致了虚拟审计的发展，作为对观察性实地审计的替代，虚拟审计具有节省旅行时间和提高审计员安全性等令人羡慕的特性。本研究检验了基于谷歌街景的虚拟系统行人街道评估工具（Virtual-STEPS）的可靠性，这是一种专门设计用于远程评估建成环境微观特征的工具。
我们创建了 Virtual-STEPS，这是一种具有 40 个项目的工具，分为 6 个领域（行人基础设施、交通减速和街道、建筑特征、自行车基础设施、交通和美学）。项目是根据过去预测积极生活的能力以及虚拟审计工具的可行性选择的。两名评级员对蒙特利尔社区的街道段进行了虚拟和实地审计，这些社区按用于确定社区“步行友好度”的 Walkscore 进行分层。使用百分比一致性、Cohen's Kappa 统计量和组内相关系数评估了虚拟和实地审计之间（n=40）以及评级员之间（n=60）的可靠性。
虚拟审计和实地审计（不包括旅行时间）所需的时间相似（9.8 分钟对 8.2 分钟）。大多数纳入 Virtual-STEPS 工具的项目的虚拟和实地审计之间以及评级员之间的百分比一致性为 80%或更高。虚拟和实地审计之间具有高度可靠性，Kappa 和 ICC 统计量表明，40 个项目中的 20 个（50.0%）具有几乎完美的一致性，13 个（32.5%）具有实质性的一致性。评级员之间的可靠性也很高，有 17 个项目（42.5%）具有几乎完美的一致性，有 11 个项目（27.5%）具有实质性的一致性。
Virtual-STEPS 是一种可靠的工具。测量微观环境的工具很重要，因为改变这种环境可能是创造有利于积极生活的环境的一种相对具有成本效益的方法。
