How do the perceptions of neighborhood conditions impact active transportation? A study in Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Introduction
Urban transportation in the Global South presents challenges that are often distinct from those in the developed world (Gwilliam, 2003, Gwilliam, 2013, Cervero, 2013). Although rates of motorization do not significantly differ at similar levels of income, lower incomes in the Global South make auto ownership unaffordable for large segments of the population. This means that, unlike many places in the developed world, so-called alternative modes of transportation are in fact, quite the norm (Godefrooij and Schepel, 2010). A case in point is Asia, where non-motorized modes such as cycling, walking, rickshaws, and carts play a vital role in urban transportation. As is the case in the rest of the world, these modes of transportation offer affordable and environmentally-friendly mobility options.
Despite the widespread use of non-motorized modes, there is an upward trend in motorization in the Global South (Cervero, 2014, Korzhenevych and Jain, 2018, Li, 2011). While on the one hand, higher modality (i.e., the availability of a high number of different modes of transportation) is seen as a desirable policy goal (e.g., Grosse et al., 2018, Krueger et al., 2018, Nobis, 2007, Vij et al., 2013), as well as essential for more robust transportation polycultures (Miller, 2011). The available evidence suggests that reliance on the car markedly reduces the set of other transportation alternatives (Lavery et al., 2013). Consequently, motorization can rapidly threaten higher modality and have other deleterious effects such as premature congestion, deteriorating environments that negate the health benefits of active travel, loss of street space for non-motorized travel, loss of safety, and changes in urban form that lock development in a trajectory that favors motorized travel (Gwilliam, 2003, Tainio et al., 2016, Pojani and Stead, 2015).
In this context, transportation planning in the Global South faces the challenge of scarcity in empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of planning interventions (Zhao and Li, 2016). This is particularly true in the case of urban active transportation (UAT), a form of mobility that is often ignored in planning and investment due to a lack of understanding of the benefits of non-motorized travel, including health benefits, reductions in congestion, less air pollution, fewer accidents, and fewer resources sunk in vehicle acquisition and maintenance (Rahul and Verma, 2013). Thus, while many cities in the developed world have recognized the multiple benefits of active transportation and have devoted efforts to promote it (e.g., Carroll et al., 2019, de Nazelle et al., 2011, Martin et al., 2014, Moniruzzaman et al., 2014), this form of mobility has not received nearly as much attention in policy and planning in the developing world (Cervero, 2013, Hatamzadeh et al., 2017). For these reasons, there is an urgent need to develop a better understanding of the factors that correlate with active transportation in regions in the Global South. Part of the challenge in the Global South is limitations on data availability. For example, attributes of the built environment are not collected in a systematic way by relevant authorities; events such as accidents may not be reported by the public due to low trust on the authorities; or data are zealously guarded by the authorities to limit accountability. Fortunately, directly asking people about their perceptions is now a well-established practice in many fields, including transportation research (see Van Acker et al., 2010, Van Acker et al., 2011). Furthermore, a wealth of research shows that behavior is influenced by those perceptions. This includes research on active travel both in the Global South and developed economies (see, Gatersleben and Appleton, 2007, Cleland et al., 2008, Akar and Clifton, 2009, Liao et al., 2015, Loo et al., 2015).
With the above considerations in mind, this paper aims to investigate the effect of perceptions of the neighborhood on urban active transportation in the context of the city of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Disaggregated data from a face-to-face survey are used to develop a probabilistic model of mode use. More concretely, the focus of the analysis is on cycling and walking, and how the use of these modes is affected by the attributes of the trip, the attributes of the individual, and individual perceptions of the social and physical conditions in the neighborhood. Perceptions of the social environment are particularly germane since they are influenced by concerns about crime and safety that are all too common in many regions in the Global South (e.g., Landman, 2012, Lemanski, 2012, Zaluar, 2012). In line with previous research in other regions, the results show that students are more likely to use active transportation than other socio-demographic groups, and that motorized vehicle ownership is associated with lower probabilities of using active transportation. The perceived UAT related characteristics of neighborhoods are shown to be particularly influential for the use of these modes. Improving neighborhood conditions and their perception by the public can enhance the attractiveness of active travel for longer commutes. Based on the study findings, the paper discusses strategies to promote the use of active transportation in the context of cities in the Global South with the similar socio-cultural background.
The data used in this research are not publicly available due to the data use agreement. In order to support as much openness as possible (see Brunsdon and Comber, 2020), the code describing the data preprocessing as well as the model files needed to reproduce the results are publicly available.1
Section snippets
Background
Compared to the developed world, limited evidences are available that focus on the correlates of the modes used for transportation in developing countries, particularly concerning UAT. Based on previous research, a number of correlates of mode use are known that are similar to studies in the developed world. This includes individual characteristics – such as age, gender, income, and education level – which have been found to affect the use of various modes of transportation in the Global South.
Geographical and policy context
Bangladesh is a South Asian country of about 160 million people experiencing rapid economic development and urbanization. Consequently, many cities in the country have experienced an adverse impact on their urban transportation systems, mostly traffic congestion, air pollution, and demand that exceeds the capacity of existing transport infrastructure. As a remedy to this situation, numerous transportation infrastructure development projects have been initiated in Bangladesh in recent years;
Model
Analysis is based on the application of multinomial logistic regression. Here, it is important to highlight some considerations that impinge on the choice of a modeling approach. Multinomial logistic regression in travel behavior analysis is often nested in the rich behavioral framework of random utility theory (see Train, 2009). This model (sometimes called conditional logit) requires information on the level of service of the alternative selected by a decision maker, and also on the level of
Analysis and results
Table 2 shows the results of a multinomial logistic model of commute mode use, as discussed above. Since the focus of the study is on UAT, walking has been selected as the reference mode. Several variables were tested, and based on their level of significance, some were omitted from the analysis to obtain the final model reported in the table. With the exception of status as a student, other socio-demographic variables did not reach conventional levels of significance (i.e., or better),
Conclusion
This paper explored the correlates of UAT in the context of a city in the Global South. The study area was the city of Rajshahi, known as the Education City of Bangladesh. Along with socio-demographic and trip characteristics, environmental correlates such as individuals’ perceptions of social (crime and traffic safety) and physical (walking and cycling) conditions in the neighborhood were studied. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is among the earliest studies that explored the association
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Bangladesh Institute of Planners for their ‘Small Grant for Research’ for financial support in this study. Special thanks are due to the surveyors who completed the field work and all survey participants. The following R packages were used in the course of this research, and the authors would like to acknowledge their developers: ggthemes (Arnold, 2019); kableExtra (Zhu, 2019); knitr (Xie, 2014, Xie, 2015); nnet (Venables and Ripley, 2002); pandocfilters (
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