Transport walking in urban neighbourhoods—Impact of perceived neighbourhood qualities and emotional relationship

• The study stresses the role of place-related emotional correlates of walking.
• Stimulating and relaxing milieu mediated the effect of local qualities on walking.
• Planning strategies for walking should consider both physical and social qualities.

This paper adds to the relatively few European studies on the pedestrian friendliness of urban areas, and on transport walking. Using the Human Environment Interaction (HEI) model (Küller, 1991), the study explores the associations between perceived neighbourhood spatial-physical and social environmental qualities and walking to neighbourhood destinations, and examines whether these associations are mediated by the emotional relationship to the residential neighbourhood. One hundred and ten urban residents in the city of Malmö, Sweden, completed a web-based survey, including measurements of walking intentions and behaviours, and the short version of both the Perceived Residential Environment Quality Indicators (PREQIs) and the Neighbourhood Attachment Scale (NAS). Structural Equation Modeling revealed direct effects of individual factors and neighbourhood spatial-physical and social environmental qualities on transport walking. The effect of environmental qualities was partly mediated by participants' emotional relationship to the residential neighbourhood. Spatial-physical as well as social-relational features of the neighbourhood seem to play a role in walking intentions and behaviours, thereby emphasising the importance of considering both aspects in measures to improve urban pedestrian friendliness.