Identifying destination distances that support walking trips in local neighborhoods

Publication date: Available online 8 September 2016 Source:Journal of Transport & Health Author(s): Lucy Dubrelle Gunn, Tania L. King, Suzanne Mavoa, Karen E. Lamb, Billie Giles-Corti, Anne Kavanagh When examining associations between local destinations and walking it is common to count local destinations using street network buffers measured at various distances to mitigate spatial data aggregation issues caused by scale and the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. However, it remains unclear whether a particular buffer size is preferred since large buffers may mask important effects whilst small buffers may not accurately represent a neighborhood area. Furthermore, the use of various buffer distances in measuring destination counts does not yield specific information on distances where destinations could be placed in order to increase levels of walking. This paper extends current methods to address these issues by using a new method to define network buffers to identify threshold distances for walking to seven destination types using multilevel models. Donut-buffers are introduced as a method of counting destinations between distances of 401m–800m and 801m–1200m which are compared to standard network buffers at distances of 400m, 800m and 1200m respectively. We found that destinations within 401m–800m could be responsible for associations found at a network buffer of 1200m. Specifically, the odds of walking increased when local food outlets including superma...
Source: Journal of Transport and Health - Category: Occupational Health Source Type: research