How Does Walkability Change Behavior? A Comparison between Different Age Groups in the Netherlands

Bojing Liao, Pauline E. W. van den Berg, Pieter J. V. van Wesemael and Theo A. Arentze
Additional contact information
Bojing Liao: Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Pauline E. W. van den Berg: Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Pieter J. V. van Wesemael: Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Theo A. Arentze: Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Empirical research provides evidence that, in neighborhoods with higher walkability, individuals make more walking trips. However, it is not clear what the exact nature is of the relationships between neighborhood walkability and walking trips, since a higher walking frequency can be explained in different ways. This study examined whether the extra walking trips in better walkable neighborhoods are related primarily to trip generation, destination choice, or transport mode choice and whether this is the same for different age groups. A neighborhood fixed effects regression analysis was conducted in a first step to obtain a walkability measure for each neighborhood in the Netherlands including systematic as well as unobserved effects. Subsequently, the estimated fixed effects were used as walkability data for a path analysis based on a causal model to test the hypotheses stated. The results of the path analysis show direct relationships of neighborhood walkability with trip generation, destination choice, and transport mode choice, after controlling for the mutual relationships between the activity and trip variables. Comparing different age groups (i.e., children, adults, and elderly), the differences found mostly concerned the relationship between neighborhood walkability and trip generation. We concluded therefore that conditions for walkability are not the same for all age groups.

Keywords: walkability; age groups; path analysis; trip generation; destination choice; mode choice and walking trips (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/540/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/540/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:2:p:540-:d:308801

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().