Association between local amenities, travel behaviours and urban planning: A spatial analysis of a nationwide UK household panel study.

Introduction

Globally, there has been a recent resurgence in planning policies focused on local living (such as the 20-min neighbourhood) with proposed benefits of creating sustainable and healthy places. The policies aim to provide improved spatial access to local amenities within short walkable distances of home to encourage walking and cycling and discourage car use, however these pathways have not been examined. This study aimed to quantify the density and diversity of local amenities and their association with daily/weekly travel behaviours.

Methods

We used data from Understanding Society, a national panel survey of UK adults. Spatial data were used to quantify the number and diversity of amenities that have previously been associated with active travel and focused on in 20-min neighbourhood policies within small geographical areas across the UK. These were linked to individual-level data describing daily and weekly travel behaviour for: walking (at least 10-min), cycling, car and bus use. Logistic regression models measured the association between individual amenities, their diversity and daily/weekly travel, whilst controlling for individual factors such as age, sex and employment, residing in a retail centre, as well as area-level urbanicity and deprivation.

Results

Our analysis revealed variations in active travel and car usage patterns by sex, employment status, urbanicity, and area-level deprivation. Local amenities were associated with daily travel behaviours with more amenities generally associated with more frequent walking and less regular bus and car travel. Furthermore, increased amenity diversity was associated with reduced daily car use (OR: 0.77, p < 0.001). Similar patterns were apparent for weekly travel outcomes.

Conclusions

Both access to specific local amenities as well as their diversity are both important neighbourhood factors for achieving shifts from motorised to active transport modes. Policy makers and planners need to ensure the diversity of local amenities are included in local living policies.