Destination-Driven Walking

Recent studies find that destination-rich environments are important for walking. To examine the link between destinations and walking, this study tests if people are more likely to walk to destinations if the destinations are more accessible. Seven destinations are included: grocery stores, restaurants, banks, convenience stores, parks, trails and streets. Socio-demographic data came from a 438-respondent telephone survey of adults living in Seattle, Washington. Objective and disaggregated environmental measures were taken around each respondent¡¯s home. Binary logit models estimated the odds of walking to each destination. Over 52% reported walking to grocery stores at least once per week, 37% to parks, 29% to restaurants, 24% to trails, 19% to banks and 18% to convenience stores. Walkers to grocery stores accumulated 209 minutes of walking and nine walking trips in total per week, contrasting to only 101 minutes and 3.3 trips for non-walkers. For all utilitarian destinations, increased accessibility was positively associated with the odds of walking to the destinations. One additional destination within 1 km from home was associated with about 30% increase in the odds of walking to that destination type. However, the associations were weaker for recreational destinations. Only trails had consistently significant associations with the likelihood of walking to trails. Findings suggest that destination-driven walking can be an important means to promote walking for health and transportation purposes. Future research in environment-walking relationships should explicitly consider the different types or purposes of walking, and further examine the roles of specific destinations in attracting or hindering walking.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lee, Chanam
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Banking industry; City planning; Nonmotorized transportation; Origin and destination; Parks; Pedestrian flow; Pedestrians; Restaurants; Trails; Walking; Walking distance; Walkways
• Uncontrolled Terms: Grocery stores
• Geographic Terms: Seattle (Washington)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01043991
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-3344
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 15 2007 6:42AM