Abstract
BackgroundWalking in neighborhood environments is undertaken for different purposes including for transportation and leisure. We examined whether sidewalk availability was associated with participation in, and minutes of neighborhood-based walking for transportation (NWT) and recreation (NWR) after controlling for neighborhood self-selection.MethodBaseline survey data from respondents (n = 1813) who participated in the RESIDential Environment (RESIDE) project (Perth, Western Australia) were used. Respondents were recruited based on their plans to move to another neighborhood in the following year. Usual weekly neighborhood-based walking, residential preferences, walking attitudes, and demographics were measured. Characteristics of the respondent’s baseline neighborhood were measured including transportation-related walkability and sidewalk length. A Heckman two-stage modeling approach (multivariate Probit regression for walking participation, followed by a sample selection-bias corrected OLS regression for walking minutes) estimated the relative contribution of sidewalk length to NWT and NWR.ResultsAfter adjustment, neighborhood sidewalk length and walkability were positively associated with a 2.97 and 2.16 percentage point increase in the probability of NWT participation, respectively. For each 10 km increase in sidewalk length, NWT increased by 5.38 min/wk and overall neighborhood-based walking increased by 5.26 min/wk. Neighborhood walkability was not associated with NWT or NWR minutes. Moreover, sidewalk length was not associated with NWR minutes.ConclusionsSidewalk availability in established neighborhoods may be differentially associated with walking for different purposes. Our findings suggest that large investments in sidewalk construction alone would yield small increases in walking.
Highlights
Walking in neighborhood environments is undertaken for different purposes including for transportation and leisure
For each 10 km increase in sidewalk length, neighborhood-based walking for transportation (NWT) increased by 5.38 min/wk and overall neighborhood-based walking increased by 5.26 min/ wk
Neighborhood walkability was not associated with NWT or NWR minutes
Summary
Walking in neighborhood environments is undertaken for different purposes including for transportation and leisure. Even in sprawling cities, traditional, neo-traditional or new urbanist neighborhoods that are characterized by mix of residential, commercial, and recreational land-uses, well connected street and pedestrian networks (i.e., grid-like street patterns), higher population densities, convenient access to public transit, and walking infrastructure can encourage more local walking [7]. Cross-sectional evidence suggests that specific components that make up the neighborhood environment are independently associated with walking, such as proximity to and mix of different recreational and nonrecreational (e.g., supermarkets, banks, convenience stores) land use types, proximity of street and pedestrian network connectivity (e.g., number of 3 and 4-way intersections, block size), population and employment density, traffic volume and traffic control devices, and aesthetics or appeal [8,9,10]
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