Urban Built Environment Walkability And Its Influential Factor

Since the 1940’s, with the rapid advance of the urbanization and the increase of car ownership, metropolitan streets are dominated by cars. It led to serious "walk crisis", followed a continuing "environmental problems" and "health costs" and other potential social impact. Over the past decade, the motorized oriented construction pattern fundamentally changes the traditional street scale which profoundly affected people’s life style, while Chinese cities in the rapid expansion of the scale and the continuous push up of the density. Urban sustainable development is facing challenges. In a Chinese context, how to rebuild the neighborhood’s walking friendly environment and promote sustainable social behavior change. It will have practical significance for urban planning and management work, and the medium and micro spatial planning.Using the data from a resident walking travel survey in the 65 neighborhoods of the 12 typical selected sub-districts of Hangzhou, this study develops a two-level poisson regression model with the explanatory variables of individual attributes, physical environment and psychological perception to examine the effects of the urban built environment on four type of walking activities(e.g. leisure and sports, daily affairs, shopping and social). The results show that, different types of walking activities on urban space exhibit their heterogeneity pattern,owing to interaction effect of different elements of urban built environment. The impact of individual attributes is fundamental, and it reflects different individuals’ adaptability for different type of walking activities. The impact of physical environment on walking behavior is objective and significant, but the impact level is limited and is moderated by psychological perception. The impact of psychological perception is radical, and it is the entrenched impact power of the urban built environment. The impact of physical environment would be more effective through the cooperation of more refined management and related policies. Based on these findings, a set of strategies and recommendations from the aspects of facility layout scale, neighborhood urban design, transportation demand management, marketing and education are proposed for improving the walkability of neighborhoods.