Identifying the Influencing Factors for the Walkability of Business Streets Based on Urban Multi-source Data

Walkability tends to be crucial to the brick-and-mortar store in the current context. This study aims to identify the potential influencing factors of the business street, and reveal the multivariate causal relationship between street attributes and walking behavior. To explore such associations, we employed a structural equation model (SEM) to explain the links of multiple latent constructs and their observable indicators based on urban multi-source data and image segmentation techniques. The result revealed that Spatial Form, Street Facility, Retail Mix and Accessibility, these variables of the built environment, have a significant influence on pedestrians’ walking behavior in the business street. People prefer the wider street with shade from buildings on both sides rather than trees when shopping, which is unlike some previous studies at the community level. Moreover, convenient facilities for the subway and cars are more important to local customers compared with the bus.