Understanding environmental influence on walking in Hong Kong

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in promoting active transportation as an effective route to address the issues caused by the heavy reliance on motorized modes. Walking, as a unique form among all types of active transportation mode, is highly accessible and easy to be incorporated into every trip. A number of distinct benefits of walking deserve special mention. Among the whole transport system, walking is a fundamental and integral part linking various elements of trip together, irrespective of public or private modes. Besides, walking offers people an opportunity for regular physical activity that contributes to substantial health benefits. In order to identify how built and social environmental attributes influence on walking, four communities in Hong Kong with different physical and/or social characteristics were selected as case study. First hand data was collected by on-site questionnaire survey, together with objective assessments towards neighborhood walkability and condition of socio-economic disadvantage, the influences of physical and social factors on the level of walking were examined.

For the study on walking intensity, individual characteristics including gender and income were found to be better predictors for the level of walking intensity. Among environmental determinants, the perceptions of pedestrians towards neighborhood walkability might be particularly important to predict one’s intensity of walking activity. Besides, positive association was observed between health condition and the level of walking activity. In terms of the study exploring the concordance between perceived and objective walkability, a moderate concordance between dual environmental measurements was found. The results of the study revealed that pedestrians’ perceptions towards neighborhood walkability might be crucial influencing one’s propensity and intensity.