Commuters' Preference to Walk: Developing a Structural Equation Model Considering Current Amount of Walking and Subjective and Environmental Factors

One important research question related to walking for transportation is whether people like to walk more or not. Past research on walking-related travel behavior has mainly considered objective measures of walking, quantifying trips that were actually taken. This paper emphasized tendency to walk more (TWM) as a subjective measure of walking in traveling to/from work. Data was collected in 2015 in the urban area of Rasht, Iran from 432 working commuters. A full-scale structural equation model was applied to explore relationships between the TWM and variables measuring the current amount of walking, attitudes, individual personality, and built-environment characteristics. Results showed that the current amount of walking was the highest determinant of TWM. Results demonstrated that positive attitudes toward walking affect the TWM both directly and indirectly and its effects were even greater than having a walkable environment. Considering the indirect effect of positive attitudes on the TWM increased the total effect of this variable by 13.8% relative to the model with the direct effect only while keeping all other relationships in the two models the same.