Streetscapes as part of servicescapes: Can walkable streetscapes make local businesses more attractive?

Abstract

Attractive local businesses can make cities more walkable by providing desirable destinations to walk to. The term servicescape has been used to describe the physical settings and environments that affect customers' inference of the service quality of businesses at that location. This study extends the concept of servicescapes to include walkable streetscapes and examines whether features that make streets more walkable also make local businesses on those streets more attractive. This study measures walkable streetscape features using street view images and computer vision, which are associated with customer satisfaction values derived from Yelp review scores of restaurants in Atlanta, GA, USA. After controlling for various covariates including pedestrian accessibility, restaurant type, and neighborhood-specific characteristics, this study found sidewalk buffers, greenness at eye level, and building-to-street ratio as streetscape features positively associated with customer satisfaction. Planning tools for promoting walkable streetscapes are discussed to improve the street vibrancy and the economic opportunities of local businesses.