Built Environment and Outdoor Leisure Activity under the Individual Time Budgets

Yongjin Ahn and Jongho Won ()
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Yongjin Ahn: School of Architecture, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul 01811, Korea
Jongho Won: Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, 306 Maxcy Hall, 108 George Street Providence, Providence, RI 02912, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Previous studies highlight the role of walkable neighborhoods in improving the health status of residents, hypothesizing that there is a strong relationship between the built environment and individual physical activity. However, unlike theoretical prediction, the evidence is less established that residents in inner cities engage in more physical activity than residents in suburban areas. To address this gap between theoretical prediction and empirical evidence in physical activity studies, this paper investigates the links between the built environment and outdoor leisure activities under the individual time constraint. We conducted path analysis, employing the samples of Los Angeles County in NHTS (National Household Travel Survey, 2008–2009). Empirical results revealed that individual time constraints have a significant negative effect on leisure time spent in outdoors, but the influence was marginal. Surprisingly, the access to local resource (e.g., park area) still matters even after time constraints are controlled for. Regarding the effects of other covariates, safety (perceived), attitude, and disability showed the largest association with outdoor leisure activities amongst the independent variables with the expected sign. Based on these results, this study not only confirms that the lack of time plays a role as a barrier of the outdoor leisure activity, but also proves that park area can be considered as a facilitator. However, the behavioral decision for outdoor leisure activities is about more than time constraints and the built environment since the effects of both are much smaller than other key covariates.

Keywords: built environment; outdoor leisure activity; time-constrains; park area; path-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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