Pedestrian Environment and Route Choice: Evidence from New York City and Hong Kong

To better understand the relationships between walking and the environment, this study tests the feasibility of route choice modeling based on pedestrians’ walking behavior. 321 pedestrians were interviewed in two urban neighborhoods (one in New York City and one in Hong Kong) to identify their actual walking routes. Then, we generated potential alternative routes using a modified labeling approach, measured the route environment through environment auditing and secondary data, estimated two multinomial probit models, and compared the results between the two neighborhoods and between the alternative choice models. It is found that route choice models based on revealed preferences could be a valid and complimentary method for assessing the pedestrian environment, and they could help to prioritize or justify investment related to pedestrian infrastructure. In contrast, contingent rating based on stated preference may overestimate the importance of more tangible attributes, such as distance and safety, because pedestrians were often unable to articulate intangible amenities, such as streetscapes and facade designs. However, route choice modeling seems to perform well only when the pedestrian system offers many route alternatives and pedestrians do have experience with multiple routes.

[1]  Ann Forsyth,et al.  The Irvine-Minnesota inventory to measure built environments: development. , 2006, American journal of preventive medicine.

[2]  Jennifer Ailshire,et al.  Using Google Earth to conduct a neighborhood audit: reliability of a virtual audit instrument. , 2010, Health & place.

[3]  Shlomo Bekhor,et al.  Link-Nested Logit Model of Route Choice: Overcoming Route Overlapping Problem , 1998 .

[4]  Antonino Vitetta,et al.  IMPLICIT AVAILABILITY/PERCEPTION LOGIT MODELS FOR ROUTE CHOICE IN TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS , 1999 .

[5]  M. S. Fiorenzo-Catalano.  Choice set generation in multi-modal transportation networks , 2007 .

[6]  G. Garrod,et al.  Economic Valuation of the Environment , 1999 .

[7]  Christine M. Hoehner,et al.  Perceived and objective environmental measures and physical activity among urban adults. , 2005, American journal of preventive medicine.

[8]  F. Bull,et al.  Developing a framework for assessment of the environmental determinants of walking and cycling. , 2003, Social science & medicine.

[9]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  An algorithm for the equilibrium assignment problem with random link times , 1982, Networks.

[10]  Daniel A. Rodriguez,et al.  The development and testing of an audit for the pedestrian environment , 2007 .

[11]  Chung Yi Tse,et al.  Estimating the commuting cost and commuting time property price gradients , 2003 .

[12]  Moshe Ben-Akiva,et al.  Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to Travel Demand , 1985 .

[13]  Zhan Guo,et al.  Assessing the cost of transfer inconvenience in public transport systems: A case study of the London Underground , 2011 .

[14]  Kevin J. Krizek,et al.  Hot, congested, crowded and diverse: Emerging research agendas in planning , 2009 .

[15]  Anne Vernez Moudon,et al.  Walking and Bicycling: An Evaluation of Environmental Audit Instruments , 2003, American journal of health promotion : AJHP.

[16]  Becky P Y Loo,et al.  Geographic Accessibility around Health Care Facilities for Elderly Residents in Hong Kong: A Microscale Walkability Assessment , 2012 .

[17]  Miles Tight,et al.  A comparison of three methods for assessing the walkability of the pedestrian environment , 2011 .

[18]  Johannes Brug,et al.  Socioeconomic differences in lack of recreational walking among older adults: the role of neighbourhood and individual factors , 2009, The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity.

[19]  Awj Aloys Borgers,et al.  Modelling pedestrian behaviour in downtown shopping areas , 2005 .

[20]  Jean-Christophe Foltête,et al.  Deviations in Pedestrian Itineraries in Urban Areas: A Method to Assess the Role of Environmental Factors , 2010 .

[21]  Carol M. Werner,et al.  Walkable Route Perceptions and Physical Features , 2007 .

[22]  Edsger W. Dijkstra,et al.  A note on two problems in connexion with graphs , 1959, Numerische Mathematik.

[23]  Dongjoo Park,et al.  Identifying Multiple and Reasonable Paths in Transportation Networks: A Heuristic Approach , 1997 .

[24]  Melissa Bopp,et al.  Psychosocial and perceived environmental correlates of physical activity in rural and older african american and white women. , 2003, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[25]  Jennifer Dill,et al.  Calibrated Labeling Method for Generating Bicyclist Route Choice Sets Incorporating Unbiased Attribute Variation , 2010 .

[26]  B. McCann.  Making Physical Activity Research Relevant to Policy Makers. , 2006, Journal of physical activity & health.

[27]  Shlomo Bekhor,et al.  Evaluation of choice set generation algorithms for route choice models , 2006, Ann. Oper. Res..

[28]  D. McFadden,et al.  MIXED MNL MODELS FOR DISCRETE RESPONSE , 2000 .

[29]  Markus Friedrich,et al.  Timetable-Based Transit Assignment Using Branch and Bound Techniques , 2001 .

[30]  R. Sugden.  Public Goods and Contingent Valuation , 1999 .

[31]  K. Leyden.  Social capital and the built environment: the importance of walkable neighborhoods. , 2003, American journal of public health.

[32]  Toru Hagiwara,et al.  Overall Level of Service of Urban Walking Environment and Its Influence on Pedestrian Route Choice Behavior , 2007 .

[33]  Lawrence D Frank,et al.  Measuring Physical Environments of Parks and Playgrounds: EAPRS Instrument Development and Inter-Rater Reliability. , 2006, Journal of physical activity & health.

[34]  Daniel A. Rodriguez,et al.  The relationship between segment-level built environment attributes and pedestrian activity around Bogota's BRT stations , 2009 .

[35]  N. Powe,et al.  Estimating the Value of Improved Street Lighting: A Factor Analytical Discrete Choice Approach , 2005 .

[36]  Julian Hine,et al.  Pedestrian travel experiences: Assessing the impact of traffic on behaviour and perceptions of safety using an in-depth interview technique , 1996 .

[37]  C. John,et al.  Racial Differences in Neighborhood Evaluation Standards , 1987 .

[38]  B. Giles-Corti,et al.  Relative influences of individual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking. , 2003, American journal of public health.

[39]  E. Martins,et al.  An algorithm for the ranking of shortest paths , 1993 .

[40]  Zhishi Guo,et al.  Does the pedestrian environment affect the utility of walking? A case of path choice in downtown Boston , 2009 .

[41]  Julien O. Teitler,et al.  Using Google Street View to audit neighborhood environments. , 2011, American journal of preventive medicine.

[42]  Michael Scott Ramming,et al.  NETWORK KNOWLEDGE AND ROUTE CHOICE , 2002 .

[43]  John Morrall,et al.  Analysis of factors affecting the choice of route of pedestrians , 1985 .

[44]  Christine M. Hoehner,et al.  Measuring the built environment for physical activity: state of the science. , 2009, American journal of preventive medicine.

[45]  Giorgio Gallo,et al.  Shortest path algorithms , 1988, Handbook of Optimization in Telecommunications.

[46]  Piet H. L. Bovy,et al.  On Modelling Route Choice Sets in Transportation Networks: A Synthesis , 2009 .

[47]  Asha Weinstein Agrawal,et al.  How Far, by Which Route and Why? A Spatial Analysis of Pedestrian Preference , 2007 .

[48]  Zhan Guo,et al.  Pedestrian Environments, Transit Path Choice, and Transfer Penalties: Understanding Land-Use Impacts on Transit Travel , 2008 .

[49]  H. Miedema,et al.  Influence of environmental street characteristics on walking route choice of elderly people , 2009 .