Generation’s Y Travel Behavior and Perceptions Towards Walkability Constraints

摘要

The aim of this paper is to investigate the interrelationship between urban environment and walking toschool, and how teenagers’ perceptions towards walkability constraints affect their mode choice. Anadvanced hybrid mode choice model is developed, where the utilities of the alternative modes dependon the modes’ characteristics, teenagers’ socioeconomic characteristics, weather conditions, builtenvironment characteristics as well as a latent variable, referring to walking constraints. The indicatorsof the latent variable include perceptions regarding the existence of stray animals, poor lighting,narrow sidewalks, parked cars that obscure visibility, non-signalized intersections, and probability ofattack and safety en route. A case study is presented based on a questionnaire survey that took place athigh schools of three distinct geographic Greek areas (an urban area, a rural and an insular area) during2011-2012. 1,988 high-school students, aged between 12 to 18 years old participated in the survey.Adolescents in rural areas walk greater distance than urban and insular adolescents. Model estimationresults show that teenagers from each geographical area are affected in different ways by weatherconditions and they also perceive in different ways the built environment, indicating how significant isthe sense of place. The incorporation of the latent variable enhanced the explanatory power of themodel, while the results of the study provide insights on policies that may help Generation Y to keepwalking.