The role of the built environment on perceived safety from crime and walking: examining direct and indirect impacts

This study examines the connection between the built environment, perceived safety from crime and walking behaviour by conducting a travel survey in King County, Washington State, U.S. and employing a two-stage least squares model. We seek to answer two research questions: how does the built environment affect perceived safety from crime and walking behaviour; and how does one’s perception of safety from crime affect his/her walking behaviour. Our results show that the built environment is not only significantly related to walking behaviour, as previous research has identified, but also correlated with people’s perception of safety. In addition, a significant association between perceived safety from crime and walking behaviour is found, revealing possible indirect impacts of the built environment on walking. In specific, people living in neighborhoods with good accessibility and pedestrian facilities tend to perceive their neighborhoods safer while density has an opposite impact. Moreover, residents in safe and high-density areas are more likely to walk.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9535-4
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00494488
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Transportation Research Board or the National Academy of Sciences.
• Authors:
  • Hong, Jinhyun
  • Chen, Cynthia
• Publication Date: 2014-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: pp 1171-1185
• Serial:
  • Transportation
  • Volume: 41
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Springer
  • ISSN: 0049-4488
  • EISSN: 1572-9435
  • Serial URL: http://link.springer.com/journal/11116

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Crimes; Environment; Pedestrian safety; Walking
• Geographic Terms: King County (Washington)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I15: Environment; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01544903
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 24 2014 3:49PM