Spatially Varying Effects of Street Greenery on Walking Time of Older Adults

Abstract

Population aging has become a notable and enduring demographic phenomenon worldwide. Older adults’ walking behavior is determined by many factors, such as socioeconomic attributes and the built environment. Although a handful of recent studies have examined the influence of street greenery (a built environment variable readily estimated by big data) on older adults’ walking behavior, they have not focused on the spatial heterogeneity in the influence. To this end, this study extracts the socioeconomic and walking behavior data from the Travel Characteristic Survey 2011 of Hong Kong and estimates street greenery (the green view index) based on Google Street View imagery. It then develops global models (linear regression and Box–Cox transformed models) and local models (geographically weighted regression models) to scrutinize the average (global) and location-specific (local) relationships, respectively, between street greenery and older adults’ walking time. Notably, green view indices in three neighborhoods with different sizes are estimated for robustness checks. The results show that (1) street greenery has consistent and significant effects on walking time; (2) the influence of street greenery varies across space—specifically, it is greater in the suburban area; and (3) the performance of different green view indices is highly consistent.

Differences in the Correlation between the Built Environment and Walking, Moderate, and Vigorous Physical Activity among the Elderly in Low- and High-Income Areas

“…According to research, walking is moderate in intensity and easy to achieve, making it one of the most common and beneficial physical activities for the elderly [5][6][7]. Additionally, walking has also become the common travel mode adopted by the elderly [8].…”

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Exploring the Effects of Urban Built Environment on Road Travel Speed Variability with a Spatial Panel Data Model

“…Land use mix, access to recreational facilities and street greenery increase walking time for older adults, but the opposite is true for intersection density and access to the metro. Meanwhile, these influencing factors of built environment have noticeable spatial-varying effects on walking time [38]. Bicycle turnover and time-varying demand characteristics varied widely across docked public bicycle stations, with bicycle stations adjacent to public transportation stations, shopping centers, restaurants, schools, and finance having high ridership on both weekdays and weekends, but stations adjacent to office concentration areas having high ridership only on weekdays [39].…”