Influential Factors on Walking Choice in Discretionary Trips, Case of Heterogeneity in Travel Distance

Increasing private car ownership and car dependency in developing countries has led to a low share of walking as an active mode of urban transportation. Gaps in the literature such as paying less attention to active travel modes in developing countries, focus on the travel behavior of specific groups (such as students, the elderly, etc.), as well as paying less attention to heterogeneity in walking travel behavior due to travel distance and age, encourage the authors to identify the effective built environment (BE) and socioeconomic factors in the likelihood of walking and the sensitivity of individuals to the walking distance for discretionary trips using the origin-destination (OD) trip matrix, particularly the 4463 observations of discretionary walking trips. Binary logit estimation results indicate people's heterogeneity in the walking behavior for discretionary trips. Also, women are more likely to choose walking on discretionary trips. Further, increasing the household size increases and possessing a driving license reduces the likelihood of walking on discretionary trips. One of the interesting results is an increase in the walking likelihood with increasing age. Further, investigation of people’s heterogeneity in age and walking distance shows that compared to other age groups, people aged 15-24 years are less likely to choose walking on discretionary trips with a distance of 0.5-0.75 miles. Moreover, in trip distances of 0.75 -1 mile, the elderly have a greater tendency to choose walking compared to other age groups. Results could be useful for transport and urban management by identifying the affective factors in walking likelihood to achieve more sustainable transport and a human-oriented city.