Residential preferences and purpose-specific walking behaviors: Mediation effects of built environments

• Linkages among residential preferences, built environments, and walking are tested. • Preferring access to transit and dense buildings promotes utilitarian walking. • Preferring high street connectivity reduces leisure walking. • Residential preferences affect walking by objective or perceived built environments. Residential preferences play a crucial role in shaping walking behaviors; however, limited literature has examined how residential preferences for specific built environment characteristics relate to walking for different purposes and the potential mediation effects of built environments in these associations. This study employs a path analysis model with data from 1,050 adult participants in Shanghai, China, to investigate the interrelationships among residential preferences, objective and perceived built environment characteristics, and walking behaviors across different purposes. After controlling socio-demographics, walking preferences, and the built environment, the findings suggest that preferences for transit accessibility and building density are positively linked to commuting and errand walking, respectively, whereas a preference for street connectivity is negatively related to leisure walking. Moreover, residential preferences influence commuting walking through objective and perceived characteristics of built environments, while their impacts on errand and leisure walking are mediated exclusively by perceived built environment features.