With help from 威尼斯人娱乐城 public health researcher Amanda Grimes, Kansas City’s push to a zero-fare bus policy could be a catalyst for change nationwide. 在疫情期间，该市取消了全市的公交票价，并将持续到2023年。
在接下来的两年里，格莱姆斯将研究新政策如何影响公交车乘客的数量，以及身体活动水平，以及这与公交车乘客的关系。 这项研究是由美国环境保护署（EPA）的一项环境正义拨款资助的。
“We think this can have a huge impact across the nation,” Grimes said. “There are so many different transit organizations in cities looking to see how fares impact health.”
这项政策已经引起了全国的关注。 拜登总统最近访问堪萨斯城时，赞扬了这项政策，同时推动了最近的一项联邦基础设施法。
Grimes是威尼斯人娱乐城护理与健康研究学院的副教授。 这项研究的重点是主动交通以及与体育活动相关的健康和社会影响。 研究表明，让人们改变自己的行为是很困难的。
“The idea of this study is that public transit riders get more physical activity per day, adding five-to-ten minutes of additional activity,” Grimes said. “In the physical activity world, just increasing someone’s activity level by a couple minutes a day is considered a success.”
Grimes is collaborating on the study with Children’s Mercy Hospital and BikeWalkKC, a local non-profit that advocates for active and alternative modes of transportation. 格兰姆斯和他的团队将通过与堪萨斯城东部居民合作的社区组织招募50名参与者。
在一周的时间里，研究参与者将佩戴GPS追踪器和加速度计，这是一种研究人员用来比个人健身追踪器更准确地测量活动的工具。 有了这些数据，格莱姆斯将能够追踪参与者使用的公交车站、他们所走的公交路线以及他们在中间的所有身体活动。
“We hope that we'll see a connection with increased physical activity and bus use because we want to see the policy continue,” said Grimes. “If we can provide evidence that it has these positive health impacts on these vulnerable communities, particularly those living in zip codes with lower life expectancies, that will help with finding funding to sustain the policy.”