What Factors Influence the Choice to Walk and Bicycle to Retail Pharmacy Stores? Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area
As communities search for ways to provide multimodal travel options for residents, it is important for planners to understand characteristics of the urban environment that are associated with greater use of pedestrian and bicycle modes for routine travel. Prior research has identified several categories of factors that are associated with walking and bicycling, including travel time and cost, socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes towards walking and bicycling, perceptions of crime and traffic safety, neighborhood land use and transportation infrastructure characteristics, and site and corridor design. However, few studies have attempted to account for these factors simultaneously within a tour-based analysis framework.
This study used a mixed logit discrete choice model to identify factors associated with walking, bicycling, taking public transit, or traveling by automobile on tours to retail pharmacy stores. Travel behavior and supplemental data were gathered from 959 customers at 20 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area in fall 2009. After controlling for travel time, travel cost, and socioeconomic characteristics, walking to and from shopping districts was associated with factors such as higher population density, more street tree canopy coverage, and greater enjoyment of walking. The exploratory analysis of a small number of bicycle tours found that bicycling on tours to shopping districts was associated with more bicycle facilities and greater enjoyment of bicycling. People were more likely to drive when they perceived a high risk of crime and were traveling to shopping districts with lower employment density, larger parking lots, and free on-street parking.
The results underscore the importance of developing compact, mixed-use neighborhoods, reducing bicycle crash risk and providing bicycle facilities, limiting off-street parking, and using on-street parking pricing strategies to promote walking and bicycling for routine shopping trips.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California
Funders: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
Project Period: August 2009 to July 2011
This study used a mixed logit discrete choice model to identify factors associated with walking, bicycling, taking public transit, or traveling by automobile on tours to retail pharmacy stores. Travel behavior and supplemental data were gathered from 959 customers at 20 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area in fall 2009. After controlling for travel time, travel cost, and socioeconomic characteristics, walking to and from shopping districts was associated with factors such as higher population density, more street tree canopy coverage, and greater enjoyment of walking. The exploratory analysis of a small number of bicycle tours found that bicycling on tours to shopping districts was associated with more bicycle facilities and greater enjoyment of bicycling. People were more likely to drive when they perceived a high risk of crime and were traveling to shopping districts with lower employment density, larger parking lots, and free on-street parking.
The results underscore the importance of developing compact, mixed-use neighborhoods, reducing bicycle crash risk and providing bicycle facilities, limiting off-street parking, and using on-street parking pricing strategies to promote walking and bicycling for routine shopping trips.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California
Funders: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
Project Period: August 2009 to July 2011
