Are residents of high-walkable areas satisfied with their neighbourhood?

Gerlinde Grasser,Sylvia Titze,Willibald J. Stronegger

doi:10.1007/s10389-016-0744-5

Abstract

AimWhile the association between walkability and walking for transport has been well established, less is known about the association between walkability and neighbourhood satisfaction. This study aims to examine the direction and strength of the association between objective measures of residential walkability and neighbourhood satisfaction, as well as the differences by sex.Subjects and methodsUsing a cross-sectional study design, outcome data were derived from the representative cross-sectional survey (n = 843) ‘Bicycle-friendly City’ of adults in the city of Graz (Austria). Walkability was measured as gross population density, household unit density, entropy index, proportion of mixed land use, three-way intersection density, four-way intersection density and walkability indices. The outcomes were measured as general neighbourhood satisfaction and neighbourhood satisfaction with the general socio-environmental quality, social cohesion and local infrastructure. Logistic regression analyses were conducted, including age, socio-economic status and place of residence.ResultsWalkability was negatively associated with general neighbourhood satisfaction, neighbourhood satisfaction with general socio-environmental quality and social cohesion. It was positively associated with neighbourhood satisfaction with local infrastructure. Connectivity and the entropy index showed the weakest or no association with the outcomes. The strongest association was between walkability and neighbourhood satisfaction with socio-environmental quality. There were no differences by sex.ConclusionThese results contribute to the current limited understanding of the association between walkability and neighbourhood satisfaction, especially in a European context. More comparable, longitudinal research would be helpful to determine what impact walkability has on neighbourhood satisfaction and to identify the important mediating factors.

Highlights

Associations between the walkability of residential neighbourhood and health-related outcomes, especially walking for transport, have been shown in a wide range of studies (Saelens et al 2003)
Among the respondents residing in the West part of the city, about one third was satisfied with their neighbourhood, while among the respondents residing in the East part of the city, about two thirds were satisfied with their neighbourhood (p < 0.05), even though the walkability measures between the East and the West part of the city did not differ from each other
Based on the theory of Frumkin et al (2004), it was hypothesised that walkability would be positively associated with neighbourhood satisfaction

Summary

Introduction

Associations between the walkability of residential neighbourhood and health-related outcomes, especially walking for transport, have been shown in a wide range of studies (Saelens et al 2003). Measured walkability was defined as Bthe extent to which characteristics of the built environment and land use may or may not be conducive to residents in the area to walk for either leisure, exercise or recreation, to access services, or to travel to work^ (Leslie et al 2007). Proximity is determined by density and land use mix (Frumkin et al 2004; Leslie et al 2007). Land use mix can be seen as a complement to density and is Ba measure of how many types—offices, housing, retail, entertainment, services, and so on—are located in a given area^ (Frumkin et al 2004).

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