Understanding the influence of affective and restorative potential of built environments on intention and walking behavior

• A theory of planned behavior to determine factors influencing school walking trips. • Gender-based analysis of walking for school trips. • Environmental concerns and artificial environments have different effects on walking behavior. • Safety and security factors for girls are higher than for boys. The increase in motor trips and the decrease in physical activity lead to obesity, which has become the main concern of many societies. Promoting walking on school trips can provide an inclusive opportunity to increase physical activity and, therefore, the benefits of walking in a community. Gender-based analysis of walking for transportation in developing countries such as Iran is rare. Also, it is possible to see significant differences between groups of girls and boys in different cities, as there is gender segregation in Iranian schools and cultural and social diversity among Iranian societies. To achieve this objective, we propose a comprehensive model that utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) along with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the factors influencing secondary school students’ choice to walk during school trips. We collected data from 540 students in Tehran and Amol using an internet questionnaire to compare their intentions in two different residences. The research results show that in the cities of Tehran and Amol, each of the considered variables, such as environmental concern and artificial environment, has different effects on walking behavior. The final section of a web-based questionnaire, which evaluates the restorative and encouraging potentials of an environment after a virtual walk in one of five urban areas in Tehran and Amol, yields these results. Therefore, a significant finding of this research indicates that different urban environments have distinct restorative and encouraging potentials, which in turn influence the intention to walk. Furthermore, a combination of natural and built environments creates the most encouraging environment, positively influencing students’ motivation and desire to walk. This environment is pleasant to look at and safe to walk in.