Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Transport Geography

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Active travel for active ageing in China: The role of built environment T
a,b a,⁎ a b b b,c,d
Long Cheng , Xuewu Chen , Shuo Yang , Zhan Cao , Jonas De Vos , Frank Witlox
a
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban ITS, Southeast University, Si Pai Lou #2, Nanjing 210096, China
b
Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S8, Ghent 9000, Belgium
c
Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia
d
College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 29 Yudao Street, Nanjing 210016, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: China has been witnessing prominent demographic ageing because of its sustained low fertility (one-child
Older people policy) and mortality rates. In 2017, nearly one in four elderly adults in the world live in China. The rapid
Active travel increase of the elderly population is supposed to dramatically influence the urban and transportation system.
Built environment Active travel plays an important role for the ageing Chinese population to sustain their mobility and wellbeing.
Socio-cultural norms
To provide suitable policy implications for age-friendly travel environments in China, this study investigates how
Nanjing (China)
the built environment affects active travel behavior. Particularly, we explore the influences of built environment
on daily active travel frequency and time expenditure while taking into account travel attitudes. A zero-inflated
ordered probit model and a Cox proportional hazards model are respectively estimated based on the Nanjing
Travel Survey data. Results show that the social and cultural contexts exert pronounced impacts on the travel
pattern of Chinese older people. Specifically, it is found that the living pattern of co-residence, and the proximity
to market, park/square, and chess/card room are influential in shaping active travel patterns. In addition, the
built environment shows larger effects on the active travel behavior of older adults than on that of young people.
Attitudes towards active travel are not significant in explaining the senior's travel behavior, indicating limited
self-selection effects. The findings will offer insights to establish effective and appropriate land use strategies and
public facility distribution for the elderly during the Chinese urban renewal process.

1. Introduction primary means of transportation for elderly people, especially those

Demographic ageing has become a pervasive societal phenomenon
in most countries, and China is no exception. Because of the sustained
low fertility (one-child policy) and mortality rates, the population in
China is ageing at a notably high rate. The share of people aged 60 and
above in China has increased substantially from 6.7% to 17.3% during
the past two decades. In 2017, nearly one in four elderly adults in the
world live in China (United Nations, 2017). According to the State
Council of China (2017), the proportion of elderly people is projected to
reach 25% (i.e., 0.36 billion people) in 2030. Evidently, the foreseeable
rapid growth of the ageing population raises great challenges for urban
planners, transportation operators and officials to adjust/coordinate the
spatial strategies (Szeto et al., 2017). The special and complicated
travel patterns of older people have to be considered while offering
travel options (Alsnih and Hensher, 2003).
Active travel plays an important role for the Chinese ageing popu-
lation to sustain mobility, maintain physical health, and ensure the
quality of life. In China, active modes – walking or cycling – are the
living in large cities. For instance, active modes account for 76% of the
seniors' daily trips in Beijing; and the percentage in Shanghai,
Shenzhen, Nanjing are 73%, 79%, and 72%, respectively (Cheng et al.,
2017a, 2017b; Zhang, 2015). Active travel is essential for the Chinese
elderly to engage in civic and social life, such as participating in com-
munity activities and pursuing human interactions. This contrasts with
western countries, particularly the US and Europe, where car and/or
public transport are the major means of transportation for the elderly
(Buehler and Pucher, 2012). Additionally, the physical activities pro-
vided by walking and cycling are effective ways to reduce obesity, high
blood pressure, and other age-related risks of chronic diseases, leading
to healthier people and lower health care costs. Recent studies also
show that compared to people traveling by car or transit, people who
walk or cycle evaluate their trips in a more positive way (De Vos et al.,
2016). This travel satisfaction, in turn, enhances life satisfaction
through the activities performed at the trip destinations (De Vos et al.,
2013).
Active ageing proposed by the World Health Organization (2002) is

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: chenxuewu@seu.edu.cn (X. Chen), zhan.cao@ugent.be (Z. Cao), jonas.devos@ugent.be (J. De Vos), frank.witlox@ugent.be (F. Witlox).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.03.010
Received 4 September 2018; Received in revised form 19 November 2018; Accepted 24 March 2019
0966-6923/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
L. Cheng, et al.
the process of optimizing options for health, participation, and security
to improve the quality of life as people are getting old. It has been
demonstrated to be closely linked with travel behavior (Nordbakke and
Schwanen, 2015). Banister and Bowling (2004) decomposed the con-
cept of quality of life for a better understanding of the meaning of
wellbeing for older people. Their findings reveal that transportation and
the potential to travel are key elements. Pettersson and Schmöcker
(2010) also confirmed the strong connection between travel behavior
and active ageing.
It is believed that active travel, the most important means of
transportation for the Chinese elderly, is essential for active ageing.
Against this backdrop, the objective of this study is to identify factors
which significantly affect the elderly's decisions for active travel so as to
propose suitable policies for improving mobility, physical health, and
well-being. In particular, we highlight the impacts of built environment
characteristics which may provide spatial strategies to adjust the land
use, facility distribution, and transportation provisions. As a measure of
active travel pattern, this paper pivots on travel frequency and daily
travel time.
This study contributes to the existing literature in different aspects:
1) uncover the active travel pattern of Chinese residents in different age
cohorts; 2) investigate the determinants of daily active travel frequency
and time expenditure of the elderly, while placing emphasis on their
relations with Chinese socio-cultural norms; 3) compare the active
travel pattern and its influencing factors between the elderly and young
adults.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 re-
views the existing literature on the influencing factors of senior's travel
mode choice and presents an overview of the Chinese socio-cultural
norms which might affect travel behavior. This is followed by the data
collection and methodology adopted in Section 3 and Section 4 re-
spectively. Section 5 illustrates the model estimation results and dis-
cusses the determinants of active travel. Finally, in Section 6, our main
conclusions are drawn and future avenues for research are suggested.
2. Literature review
2.1. Determinants of senior's travel mode choice
Having access to various travel modes (e.g., walking, cycling, car or
public transport) exerts important and positive effects on active ageing
(Banister and Bowling, 2004; Mifsud et al., 2017; Pettersson and
Schmöcker, 2010). Travel modes offer older people with access to social
relations outside the community and are essential for them to maintain
social networks. Regarding the determinants of the elderly's travel
mode choice, the literature basically identifies two main categories of
factors: socio-demographics and built environment characteristics.
Behavioral heterogeneity of the elderly in travel mode choices is
observed, varying by age, gender, income, driving license availability,
education level, car ownership, and household structure. Li et al.
(2012) examined travel mode choices of the older adults in the UK and
indicated that the most commonly used mode is car. Nevertheless, the
proportion of car use decreases at higher ages. With regard to gender,
Schmöcker et al. (2008) and Li et al. (2012) found that elderly females
rely more on public transport and less on car. Schmöcker et al. (2008)
additionally reported that seniors with higher income are unlikely to
use public transport. Similar conclusions have been drawn in the stu-
dies among Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Dutch elderly, where
Hjorthol et al. (2010) and Böcker et al. (2017) observed that seniors
with high incomes, as well as those having driving licenses, perform
more trips by car. With respect to education level, Schwanen et al.
(2001) and Van den Berg et al. (2011) revealed that highly educated
elderly conduct more trips (in particular leisure trips) by public trans-
port. Schwanen et al. (2001) noted that car ownership is a crucial
element in explaining travel mode choice. If a senior owns a car, it is
more likely for him/her to travel using car regardless of the built
143
Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152
environment. The household structure also matters for senior's travel
behavior. The elderly in larger families tend to walk, cycle and take
public transport remarkably more than those in smaller families
(Mercado and Páez, 2009). Hess (2009), examining the impacts of
household type, uncovered that the single elderly are more inclined to
travel by public transport.
In addition to the effects of socio-demographics, the role of built
environment on the elderly's mode choice is also important. A number
of key built environment attributes have been identified to exert pro-
nounced influences, for instance building density, land-use mixture,
dedicated infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, proximity to fa-
cilities, and transportation provisions (Kim and Ulfarsson, 2004; Mifsud
et al., 2017; Schwanen et al., 2001; Yang et al., 2017). The elderly's
travel mode choice behavior can be explained by five categories of built
environment characteristics, i.e., 5Ds: density, diversity, design, desti-
nation accessibility and distance to public transport (see, for instance,
Ewing and Cervero, 2010).
2.1.1. Density
Higher density has been demonstrated to decrease the probability of
driving (Figueroa et al., 2014; Kim and Ulfarsson, 2004), and support
public transport use (Böcker et al., 2017). Older people living in sub-
urbs rely more on cars and perform more car trips than those who live
in highly dense neighborhoods (Hanson and Hildebrand, 2011). In
dense environments, good infrastructural conditions and short average
distances to destinations facilitate walking and cycling for seniors, and
in particular those without cars (Kemperman and Timmermans, 2009).
Nonetheless, some studies have revealed that living in high-density area
adversely impacts perceived safety – the elderly feel insecure in high-
density areas than do young people (Böcker et al., 2017; Figueroa et al.,
2014). This, in turn, decreases the likelihood of walking and cycling
and increases the use of public transport or cars.
2.1.2. Diversity
Neighborhoods with mixed use of residential and commercial op-
portunities encourage public transport use for the elderly (Currie and
Delbosc, 2010). Living in mixed-use neighborhoods also results in fewer
car trips (Mercado and Páez, 2009). Building diversity positively affects
active travel. A possible explanation could be the physical or spatial
proximity to different facilities because of mixed land use, which makes
walking and cycling a feasible option, especially for the older adults
(Moniruzzaman and Paez, 2016).
2.1.3. Design
Neighborhood design characteristics – including traffic calming
zones – can affect the safety of streets and sidewalks, influencing the
propensity for active travel. The presence of pedestrian pathways and
sidewalks increases the likelihood of walking (Hess et al., 1999).
Kemperman and Timmermans (2009) considered the effects of green
space, reporting that green residential environments encourage both
walking and cycling among the older adults. Other elements associated
with walkability and cyclability have also been found to favorably af-
fect the elderly's active travel. For example, the presence of gardens and
shops (Borst et al., 2009), the amount of bicycle routes in the neigh-
borhood (Hall and McAuley, 2010), as well as traffic signals with pe-
destrian controls (Michael et al., 2006b), are positively associated with
active travel. As an exception, Michael et al. (2006a, 2006b), showed
insignificant effects of walking path quantity on the number of the el-
derly's walking trips.
2.1.4. Destination accessibility
Destination accessibility measures the ease of reaching trip desti-
nations (Ewing and Cervero, 2001). The convenient access to destina-
tions has been found to encourage the elderly to conduct more out-of-
home activities. A higher level of destination accessibility is related to
the decreased likelihood of traveling by car (Figueroa et al., 2014). It is
L. Cheng, et al.
Fig. 1. Map of the main city area of Nanjing.
also noted that enhanced accessibility tends to have much larger effects
on the elderly's mobility than that of the young adults (Cao et al., 2010).
2.1.5. Distance to public transport
Reducing the distance to public transport stops and improving
transport connections are strong indicators of senior's public transport
use (Hess, 2009; Nordbakke and Schwanen, 2015). In order to increase
the use of public transport, travel distance to transport facilities should
be shortened, and transport network connectivity should be enhanced.
Furthermore, people may choose their neighborhoods to fulfill their
residential or travel preferences (De Vos and Witlox, 2016). For in-
stance, Cao and Ettema (2014) stated that people choose to relocate or
stay in their current residences partly due to their likings on a certain
travel mode. As such, the association between travel behavior and built
environment is probably to be confounded by attitudinal factors – it
might be travel preference rather than neighborhood design that truly
affects travel behavior. This is the well-known self-selection hypothesis,
claiming that travel behavior is more affected by people's travel pre-
ferences – resulting in a choice of a neighborhood meeting these pre-
ferences – than by the built environment per se (Cao et al., 2009). The
evidence on the residential self-selection is now well acknowledged
even though the built environment keeps important (Scheiner, 2010).
In an effort to understand the elderly's travel behavior and its de-
terminants, existing studies have disproportionally focused on western
countries where motorized modes are dominant (Alsnih and Hensher,
2003; Hess, 2009; Newbold et al., 2005). As such, little is known about
other parts of the world, in particular, China. Moreover, because of the
differences in socio-cultural contexts between China and western
countries, it is difficult to directly apply results obtained from western
countries to China. This study illustrates and uncovers the active travel
pattern of the Chinese elderly. The findings will serve as valuable re-
ferences for the policymakers in proposing effective and appropriate
measures that enhance the active ageing of China.
2.2. Chinese socio-cultural norms
Socio-cultural norms could have significant impacts on an in-
dividual's lifestyle, habits, attitudes, and values, thus leading to dif-
ferent activity-travel patterns (Ohnmacht et al., 2009). Chinese socio-
144
Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152
culture is deeply influenced by Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism,
and the potential influences of socio-culture on senior's travel behavior
are multifaceted. We will examine their influences from two aspects in
this study: household structure and activity participation.
First, Chinese household structure is quite unique. The Confucius
ideology of filial piety requests that young people be responsible for the
care of their senior parents. It is thus very common in China that
married adults co-reside with their parents. A recent survey in Nanjing,
China reported that over 60% of married couples are living with their
parents (Nanjing Institute of City and Transport Planning, 2014). These
aged-parents share the household responsibilities, for instance, daily
shopping, caring for grandchildren and other household errands. Un-
doubtedly, the special roles of the older people in co-resided households
would exert profound effects on their travel patterns.
Second, activity participation of the elderly is also different from
that in most western countries (Ito et al., 2014). On average, Chinese
elderly have a higher preference for conducting ‘passive’ leisure activ-
ities, like playing mahjong, chess and cards, and visiting friends and
relatives. There are at least three cultural traditions in understanding
such activities (Chen, 2004; Ito et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2008). The first
one is motionless, which highlights the significance of a continual quiet
mood through meditating and talking with friends who share common
interests. If exercise, they tend to perform activities which are less
strenuous, such as sightseeing and playing taiji in a peaceful mood. The
second tradition is the wisdom, an important virtue for being a gen-
tleman. As a result, they play chess, cards, and mahjong in which they
can display their wisdom. The last one is the harmony, which under-
lines concordance and compatibility in all aspects of the society. As a
result, they are prone to enroll in literary activities (e.g., calligraphy)
instead of competitive sports. Apparently, the socio-cultural norms
could result in different preferences for activity participation, and
therefore different travel patterns.
3. Data
3.1. Travel behavior data
To reveal the active travel behavior of China's older people, this
study examines their daily travel frequency and travel time based on
L. Cheng, et al. Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

the 2013 household interview survey data from the Nanjing Travel Table 2
Survey. Nanjing is the political, economic, educational, and cultural Built environment characteristics of elderly's households.
center of Jiangsu Province. The main city area contains 495 traffic Variable Mean SD
analysis zones (TAZs) and much of the main city area is located at the
2
south bank of Yangtze River (Fig. 1). Population density (persons/1000m ) 3.13 1.38
Land use mixture 0.61 0.14
The survey was conducted by the local government on a normal
Distance to the nearest shopping mall (km) 1.36 0.77
weekday (i.e., Wednesday; October 30th, 2013). The questionnaire Distance to the nearest convenience store (km) 0.71 0.40
includes three parts: (a) household and individual characteristics, (b) Distance to the nearest market (km) 0.88 0.32
travel information of all trips made within the 24 h of the previous day, Distance to the nearest park/square (km) 1.50 0.83
and (c) travel attitudes towards the preference for transportation Distance to the nearest chess/card room (km) 0.71 0.48
Distance to the nearest gym/sports center (km) 0.93 0.43
characteristics. A total of 6000 questionnaires were assigned randomly
Arterial density (km/km2) 1.55 1.24
to residents in TAZs in accordance with their population. Taking a The number of parking lots 25.18 19.67
whole household as a unit, face-to-face, structured interviews were Distance to the nearest metro station (km) 1.68 1.59
adopted to record all activities involving travel details for all in- The number of bus stops 5.02 2.84
The number of bike-sharing stations 4.03 2.89
dividuals above six years old in the household.
In this study, we consider the older people that are aged 60 or above a
Note: SD is the standard deviation.
and respondents between 18 and 60 years old are referred to as young
adults. After sample selection and data cleaning, we included 702 el-
preference for walking. In this study, we will mainly focus on attitudes
derly persons and 3772 young persons for analysis. Although our
towards walking and cycling.
sample size of older adults is not very large (i.e., < 1000 respondents),
it is rather representative, and comparable with – or even larger than –
sample sizes of other studies analyzing elderly's travel behavior (e.g., 3.2. Built environment data
Böcker et al., 2017; Feng et al., 2013; Mifsud et al., 2017; Van den Berg
et al., 2011). The comparisons of socio-demographic characteristics are Built environment data were obtained from the Nanjing Urban
shown in Table 1. Regarding household structure, three categories are Planning Bureau in 2013. We applied the API service of Baidu Map to
identified: retiree household – including single and couple retired geocode the respondents' household addresses – collected in the
persons, two-generation household – retired people who live with adult Nanjing Travel Survey – into XY coordinates for projecting on the map.
children but no grandchildren, and three-generation household – re- In the analysis, the “buffer” function in the ArcGIS software (version
tired people living with adult children and grandchildren (Feng, 2017). 10.2) was used to obtain the built environment variables around each
One section of the survey asked respondents about attitudes towards household location (Table 2).
transportation facilities in the neighborhood, on a binary response of First, population density is measured by the ratio of population and
“yes” or “no”. These characteristics include favorable public transport the area of the traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in Nanjing. Land use mixture
service, sufficient parking spaces, good walking and cycling environ- represents the diversity of different functions in the neighborhood. It is
ment, etc. The preference ratings are measures of an individual's pre- calculated as an entropy index: s = − ∑i(Pi ln (Pi))/ ln (I) within 1000 m
disposition towards features of a residential neighborhood. They are radius of the household. In the equation, s represents land use mixture
considered as proxy variables for respondent's travel attitudes. For ex- (entropy); Pi is the proportion of the ith land use type (i = 1, 2, … , I).
ample, if a respondent reported that he/she has a preference for living The entropy value spans from 0 (i.e., only one land use type) to 1 (i.e.,
in a walk-friendly environment, we could infer that he/she has a utilization evenly distributed over all land use types). Five land use
types are included: residential, commerce and business, public services,

Table 1
Socio-demographic and attitudinal variables.
Variable Description Frequency Percent Frequency Percent

Individual level # of individuals = 702 # of individuals = 3772

Gender Female 321 45.7% 1980 52.5%
Male 381 54.3% 1792 47.5%
Education Low 324 46.1% 419 11.1%
Middle 287 40.9% 1180 31.3%
High 91 13.0% 2173 57.6%
Transit card ownership Yes 601 85.6% 3145 83.4%
No 101 14.4% 627 16.6%
Driving license ownership Yes 61 8.7% 1962 52.0%
No 641 91.3% 1810 48.0%
Preference for walking Yes 187 26.6% 883 23.4%
No 515 73.4% 2889 76.6%
Preference for cycling Yes 90 12.8% 751 19.9%
No 612 87.2% 3021 80.1%
Household level # of households = 481 # of households = 1704
Household structure Retiree household 164 34.1% /a /
Two-generation household 177 36.7% / /
Three-generation household 140 29.2% / /
Household income < 50,000 RMB/year 188 39.1% 270 15.8%
50,000–100,000 RMB/year 161 33.5% 691 40.6%
> 100,000 RMB/year 132 27.4% 743 43.6%
Car ownership Yes 188 39.1% 919 53.9%
No 293 60.9% 785 46.1%
Bicycle ownership Yes 348 72.3% 1177 69.1%
No 133 27.7% 527 30.9%

a
“/” means not applicable.

145
L. Cheng, et al. Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

frequency of active travel varies considerably, rising from 0.91 to 1.99

Fig. 2. Mode choice of young adults and the elderly.
education, and entertainment.
Second, we measure the distance of the residence to two categories
of facilities: shopping facility – shopping mall, convenience store, and
market; leisure facility – park/square, chess/card room, and gym/sports
center. They are the shortest path on the road network from the
household location to facilities. Markets are retail areas, consisting of
tables, stands or booths, where vendors sell vegetables, fruits, meat, and
non-food products. The third set of indicators is associated with trans-
portation provisions. Auto transportation provision is represented by
the arterial density and the number of parking lots within 1000 m ra-
dius of the household. Public transport provision includes distance to
the nearest metro station, the number of bus stops and the number of
bike-sharing stations within 500 m radius of the household.
3.3. Travel characteristics
This section provides a descriptive analysis of the mode choice,
daily active travel frequency, and time expenditure. Fig. 2 presents the
chosen travel modes – measured at the trip level – of different age
cohorts. Five categories of modes are identified: walking, cycling,
public transport (PT), car and moped. Walking or cycling is referred to
as active mode. In Fig. 2 we observe a significant increase in walking as
people age. Although the share of cycling remains stable, the market
share of active modes of the elderly is much higher than that of the
young adults, reaching up to 72%. The car is by far the least frequently
used mode by the elderly people in Nanjing, representing only 3% of
the total trips.
Table 3 reports the active travel frequency and daily travel time of
active trips – measured at the aggregated/individual level – of young
adults and the elderly. The mean and the standard deviation are com-
puted based on all individuals (including zero-trip individuals). Even
though cycling frequencies across different age cohorts are similar,
older people walk a lot more than young adults. As a result, the total
trips as people age. This is presumably because the majority of elderly
people are retired, and they have more free time. In addition, many
older people co-reside with their married children (see Table 1) where
they are often responsible for certain household tasks, such as grocery
shopping, sending/ picking up grandchildren to/from school, therefore
perform more active trips.
The young adults spend much less time on active travel compared to
the elderly. The decreased rate is 68.18%, from 57.26 min to 18.22 min.
We made a statistical test of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare
their differences. Results reveal that travel characteristics between the
older and young adults are significantly different at p < .01. The dis-
tributions of travel frequency and time show that older adults tend to be
more actively mobile than their younger counterparts. As such, the
lower use of motorized modes makes the activity space of the elderly
smaller. This suggests that they are more likely to be reliant on the
neighborhood or local facilities for daily travel and activities.
4. Methodology
4.1. Zero-inflated ordered probit model
A zero-inflated ordered probit (ZIOP) model is employed to disen-
tangle different factors affecting the number of active trips. The zero-
inflated model is selected over the regular ordered probit model for
accounting for an excessive number of zero observations. In our case,
the number of zero observations – respondents not making any active
trips – are 180 older adults and 2059 young adults. The ZIOP model is
linked to behavioral theory following the random utility maximization.
It involves two latent equations – a probit selection equation and an
ordered probit equation (Lera-López et al., 2014). The first equation is a
probit model for analyzing the binary decision to perform active travel.
It can be expressed as:
r∗ = X T β + ε (1)
where X indicates a vector of covariates affecting active travel; β refers
to a vector of the coefficients that need to be estimated; and ε is a
random error term which is assumed to be normally distributed. The
latent variable r∗ denotes the likelihood to perform and is represented
in a binary expression, where r = 1 if r∗ > 0, and r = 0 if r∗ ≤ 0.
As such, the probability of performing active travel is given by:
Pr(r = 1 | X ) = Pr(r ∗ > 0 | X ) = Φ(X T β ) (2)
where Φ(XTβ) represents the cumulative distribution function of the
univariate standard normal distribution.
Conditional on r = 1, the number of trips in the active travel deci-
sion is illustrated by y(y = 1, 2, .…, J). It is generated by an ordered
probit model through a second latent variable y∗. y∗ is expressed as:

Table 3 y∗ = Z T λ + η (3)
Active travel pattern.
Age Walking Cycling Active where Z is a vector of covariates with unknown coefficients λ; and η is a
cohorts random error term which is normally distributed. The mapping for
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
relating y∗ to y is shown as:
⁎⁎⁎ ⁎⁎⁎
Travel The 1.68 1.51 0.31 0.85 1.99 1.50
∗
frequency elderly
⁎⁎⁎ ⁎⁎⁎
⎧ 1 if… y ≤ μ1
Young 0.60 1.18 0.32 0.87 0.91 1.41 ⎪
adults y = j if μj − 1 < y∗ ≤ μj
Daily travel The 40.18⁎⁎⁎ 49.66 17.08⁎⁎⁎ 37.15 57.26⁎⁎⁎ 52.70 ⎨ …
⎪
time (min) elderly
⎩ J if μJ − 1 < y∗ (4)
Young 11.37⁎⁎⁎ 25.85 6.85⁎⁎⁎ 20.80 18.22⁎⁎⁎ 32.28
adults
where μj(j = 1, 2, … , J − 1) are threshold values to be estimated along
Note: a
SD is the standard deviation. with λ. Under the assumption that η is normally distributed, the ordered
⁎⁎⁎
p < .01 of ANOVA test. probit probabilities are given by:

146
L. Cheng, et al.
T
⎧ Pr(y = 1 | Z , r = 1) = Φ(μ1 − Z λ )
⎪ …
Pr(y ) = Pr(y = j | Z , r = 1) = Φ(μj − Z T λ ) − Φ(μj − 1 − Z T λ )
⎨ …
⎪ T
⎩ Pr(y = J | Z , r = 1) = 1 − Φ(μJ − 1 − Z λ ) (5)
The maximum likelihood method is commonly used for efficiently
and consistently estimating the parameters of the ZIOP model (β, λ, μ).
4.2. Cox proportional hazards model
The effects of explanatory variables on active travel in time ex-
penditure are investigated using the Cox proportional hazards (Cox PH)
model. This model is suitable for our analysis because in these models
travel time is considered as a duration-dependent process, i.e., the
probability to spend extra time unit on a trip depends on the time al-
ready spent on the trip (Ettema et al., 2007). Eq. (6) shows a typical Cox
PH hazard function. The hazard function h(t| X) denotes an individual's
instantaneous transition rate from one state to another, given that the
transition has not yet happened before time t. The value of this hazard
function is named the hazard rate.
h (t | X ) = h 0 (t ) exp(X T β ) (6)
where h0(t) is a time-dependent baseline hazard function; X indicates a
vector of explanatory variables; and β refers to a vector of coefficients
to be estimated.
When comparing the relative hazard contribution of explanatory
variables, it is convenient to use the hazard ratio (HR). The HR is the
probability that an individual will finish an active trip in the next in-
stant, conditional that he/she has survived up until time t. Measured by
the ratio of the hazard rates of two values of the explanatory variable,
HR is expressed in Eq. (7).
h (t | x2 ) h 0 (t ) exp(x2 βx )
HR = = = exp(βx (x2 − x1))
h (t | x1 ) h 0 (t ) exp(x1 βx ) (7)
where x1 and x2 are the two values of the explanatory variable con-
sidered. It is a good property of the Cox PH model that the baseline
hazard function needs not be to explicitly specified as it will be canceled
out in Eq. (7).
The hazard ratio is important for the interpretation of the model
results. Coefficient β = 0(HR = 1) suggests that the explanatory vari-
ables do not contribute to the hazard ratio. Coefficient β < 0(HR < 1)
or β > 0(HR > 1) indicates that the hazard ratio decreases or in-
creases, respectively.
5. Results
Before model specification, we tested the multicollinearity of ex-
planatory variables to avoid erroneous and spurious estimation. The
variance inflation factor (VIF) is used. The VIF values of all explanatory
variables range from 2.0 to 5.0. They are much smaller than the com-
monly used cutoff point (i.e., 10.0), which indicates there is no multi-
collinearity (Craney and Surles, 2002). In addition, the proportional
odds of the ZIOP model – an elementary assumption of ordinal re-
gression models – were checked. The significance of proportional odds
is larger than 0.05 (i.e., 0.44) which indicates that the model meets the
assumption. For the Cox PH model, time-dependent covariates were
used to check the proportional hazards. The results show that all time-
interacted covariates are not significant, which suggests the data meet
the assumption of proportionality.
5.1. Travel frequency
Table 4 reports the results from ZIOP model. The zero-inflated
model performs better than the regular ordered probit model based on
the Vuong test, which suggested significant improvements in model fit
147
Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152
(in.
Table 4, elderly: z = 5.07, p = .00; young: z = 8.22, p = .00). In
addition, with pseudo-R2 of 0.255 and 0.302, our models explain the
respondents reasonably well. Table 4 just shows the ordered probit part
of the ZIOP estimation results for brevity. The zero-inflated part of the
results broadly tells the same story as the ordered probit part, which is
presented in the appendix.
5.1.1. Effects on the elderly
The results in.
Table 4 indicate that population density and land use have sig-
nificant influences on travel frequencies of the elderly, even after ac-
counting for attitudinal factors. The elderly living in densely populated
or mixed land use neighborhood are prone to make more active trips.
Given that facilities for accessing goods and services in these areas are
in close proximity, it is conducive to perform more out-of-home activ-
ities.
When looking at the effects of facility distribution – distances to
shopping facilities and leisure facilities, we conclude some interesting
findings. The distribution of markets matters to a greater extent than
that of shopping malls and convenience stores. If the elderly live close
to markets, they are more inclined to conduct active trips. Shopping
malls and convenience stores appeared in China and became wide-
spread less than two decades ago. Before that, shopping in markets is
the most common option, which has already been habits rooted, espe-
cially among older people. Meanwhile, the price of commodities at
markets is usually lower than that of shopping malls and convenience
stores. Markets, on the other hand, are good public places for people to
socialize. The process of choosing commodities of high quality, bar-
gaining with dealers and talking with other buyers provides important
meaning for the elderly. Obviously, the Chinese elderly have higher
preferences for markets than shopping malls and convenience stores,
which is in contrast with western countries where the latter two are the
major places for accessing goods and services.
With regard to leisure facilities, distances to park/square or chess/
card room strongly influence active travel. However, distance to gym/
sports center does not exert profound impacts. There might be two
possible explanations. First, it is related to the household responsibility
the elderly undertake. A large proportion of the elderly has to take care
of grandchildren, which is inferred from the percentage of three-gen-
eration households in Table 1. Also, the seniors themselves have the
desire for interaction with people outside and participation in com-
munity activities. As a result, places that can satisfy these requirements
are more appealing, like parks and squares. They can communicate
with friends, and in the meantime look after grandchildren. Parks and
squares, in particular, might serve as playgrounds for children. Gyms
and sports centers, on the other hand, in which more individualized
activities are conducted, cannot satisfy the diversified needs of the el-
derly. Second, it might relate to the Chinese cultural norms. As men-
tioned in Section 2, Chinese people prefer passive activities. Compared
to gym and sports center, park/square or chess/card room are more
attractive.
The set of transportation provision indicators also show important
impacts. Arterial density is found to be detriments of active travel,
which is in line with research findings in western countries (Figueroa
et al., 2014; Kim and Ulfarsson, 2004). Neighborhoods with high ar-
terial density make people feel unsafe when walking or cycling outside.
The number of bus stops and bike-sharing stations has positive effects
on active travel frequency. These significant impacts are ascribed to the
public transport subsidies provided by the government. People aged 60
or above in Nanjing can travel by public transport at half price while
people aged 70 or above can take it for free. Note that people need to
walk or cycle to/from bus stops when using public transport, thus in-
creasing active travel frequency. As expected, the number of bike-
sharing stations has positive effects. The possible reason for the insig-
nificance of distance to metro station is that the seniors are reluctant to
L. Cheng, et al. Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

Table 4
ZIOP model for active travel frequency.
Ordered probit part The elderly Young adults

Coef. Elasticity Coef. Elasticity

⁎⁎ ⁎⁎
Constant 0.742(0.235) / 0.791(0.336) /
Socio-demographics
Gender (Female = ref.)
Male −0.109(0.060)⁎⁎ / −0.379(0.057)⁎⁎⁎ /
Education (Low = ref.)
Middle −0.189(0.134) / −0.074(0.094) /
High −0.184(0.214) / −0.247(0.101)⁎⁎ /
Transit card ownership (No = ref.) 0.205(0.193)⁎ / −0.049(0.083) /
Driving license ownership (No = ref.) −0.084(0.237) / −0.536(0.093)⁎⁎⁎ /
Household structure (Retiree = ref.)
Two-generation household 0.128(0.108)⁎ / / /
Three-generation household 0.172(0.085)⁎⁎⁎ / / /
Household income (< 50,000 = ref.)
50,000–100,000 RMB 0.085(0.158) / −0.048(0.089) /
> 100,000 RMB 0.115(0.177) / −0.140(0.090) /
Car ownership (No = ref.) −0.103(0.085) / −0.138(0.066)⁎⁎ /
Bicycle ownership (No = ref.) 0.244(0.134)⁎⁎ / 0.379(0.065)⁎⁎⁎ /

Built environment
Population density 0.116(0.063)⁎⁎ 0.074 0.052(0.027)⁎ 0.013
Land use mixture 1.283(0.428)⁎⁎⁎ 0.384 0.632(0.202)⁎⁎⁎ 0.095
Distance to shopping mall −0.111(0.169) −0.020 −0.157(0.193) −0.011
Distance to convenience store −0.070(0.087) −0.033 −0.015(0.043) −0.011
Distance to market −1.272(0.604)⁎⁎⁎ −0.050 0.147(0.305) 0.016
Distance to park/square −0.168(0.093)⁎ −0.055 −0.079(0.046)⁎ −0.100
Distance to chess/card room −0.369(0.200)⁎ −0.015 0.154(0.164) 0.016
Distance to gym/sports center 0.355(0.258) 0.054 0.264(0.148)⁎ 0.016
Arterial density −0.058(0.034)⁎⁎ −0.030 −0.063(0.037)⁎ −0.022
The number of parking lots −0.002(0.004) −0.023 −0.001(0.001) −0.001
Distance to metro station −0.073(0.068) −0.016 0.161(0.141) 0.030
The number of bus stops 0.064(0.032)⁎⁎ 0.004 0.007(0.014) 0.018
The number of bike-sharing stations 0.044(0.022)⁎⁎ 0.008 0.014(0.010) 0.022

Travel attitude
Preference for walking (No = ref.) 0.008(0.191) / 0.089(0.033)⁎⁎ /
Preference for cycling (No = ref.) 0.034(0.120) / 0.038(0.104) /
Threshold 1 −1.124(0.564)⁎⁎ 0.417(0.290)⁎
Threshold 2 −0.801(0.535)⁎ 0.474(0.289)⁎
Threshold 3 1.205(0.534)⁎ 1.495(0.286)⁎⁎
Threshold 4 1.443(0.535)⁎ 1.613(0.286)⁎⁎
Threshold 5 2.575(0.544)⁎⁎⁎ 2.517(0.288)⁎⁎⁎

Model fit
Pseudo-R2 0.255 0.302
Vuong test z = 5.07, p = .00 z = 8.22, p = .00

Note: b Standard errors in parenthesis. c

“/” means not applicable. d
1RMB=US$0.16 in 2013.
⁎
p < .10.
⁎⁎
p < .05.
⁎⁎⁎
p < .01.

use metro because they have to go downstairs and upstairs frequently
(Currie and Delbosc, 2010).
Travel preferences for walking and cycling do not show any sig-
nificant effects on the elderly's active travel frequency. This non-sig-
nificant effect of travel attitudes on travel behavior also suggests lim-
ited self-selection effects. The results are different from other studies
indicating that self-selection has an important effect on travel behavior
(Cao et al., 2009; De Vos and Witlox, 2016). Several possible ex-
planations could be given. First, a large proportion of the Chinese el-
derly co-reside with their children. Their residential places are more
dependent on the choices of the children rather than themselves.
Second, it is related to the property purchasing power of the elderly. In
view of the limited pensions of the older people, it is usually unable for
them to afford to move to new places of their desire. The average
housing price in the main city area of Nanjing has reached 20,000
RMB/m2 (3200 USD/m2) in 2013 (Nanjing Municipal Bureau Statistics,
2014). The third reason could be attributed to the philosophy of
“ageing in place”. The Chinese people have the strong aspiration of
“falling leaves settle on the roots”. The willingness of older people that
moving housing locations to new places is greatly decreased as they
age. To be able to live in one's own house and community pleasantly
and securely might be a wish of many seniors.
In addition, the socio-demographics also have impacts on the travel
frequency. The negative effect of gender indicates that women are more
inclined to perform active trips. This corroborates the household re-
sponsibility hypothesis that females bear more household affairs (Feng
et al., 2013). The education variable does not show significant impacts
on the total number of active trips. Transit card ownership contributes
to active travel, which is also related to the subsidy policy of the elderly
people in Nanjing. It is interesting to note that driving license owner-
ship and household car ownership have no profound impacts on elderly’
travel. This is distinct from western countries where driving license
possession and car ownership play important roles in daily travel
(Rosenbloom, 2001). It is presumably because of the low ownership of
driving license and cars of the elderly in China. Our data show
that < 10% elderly people have driving licenses, and > 60% of
households have no cars (Table 1). Bicycle ownership has positive ef-
fects on active travel frequency, which is consistent with previous

148
L. Cheng, et al.
findings that the travel mode ownership encourages the use of that
mode (Cheng et al., 2017a, 2017b). With regard to household structure,
older people from two-generation and three-generation households are
prone to make more active trips. The seniors living with their adult
children undertake more household responsibilities, therefore they
conduct more out-of-home activities.
5.1.2. Comparisons with young adults
In order to make comparisons between age cohorts, elasticities have
been computed in Table 4. The elasticity is defined as the percentage
change in the dependent variable with respect to a 1% change in an
independent variable. Generally, the built environment has stronger
effects on elderly's active travel frequency than on the active travel
frequency of young adults. For instance, distance to market, distance to
chess/card room, the number of bus stops, and the number of bike-
sharing stations significantly affect elderly's travel frequency. These
variables, however, exert insignificant influences on the travel fre-
quency of young adults. The activity participation of young adults on
weekdays is usually work-related. Therefore, the proximity to market
and chess/card room are less important. When conducting leisure ac-
tivities, young people prefer to relax or exercise in the park/square or
gym/sports center. As a result, distances to park/square or gym/sports
center are influential to young adults.
Population density and land use are significant in affecting the
travel frequency of old and young adults. This indicates that an effec-
tive approach for promoting the active travel of the whole population is
to mix land use and increase population density in residential neigh-
borhoods. An interesting finding is the impact of attitudinal variables.
Unlike the elderly, preference for walking has an important and positive
impact on young adults' active travel frequency. This result suggests the
heterogeneity of self-selection across age cohorts. It might mean that
self-selection is significant on affecting travel behavior of young adults
while being insignificant on affecting travel behavior of older adults.
We compared the magnitude of impacts across age cohorts with the
use of elasticity. Among all influential factors, the effect of land use
mixture on elderly's travel frequency is the largest. A 1% increase in
land use entropy would enhance the active travel frequency by 0.38%.
Land use mixture also influences the active travel frequency of young
adults to a great extent (i.e., 0.09%), although the largest effect on
young adults' active travel is generated by the variable of distance to
park/square. A 1% decrease in the distance to park/square could in-
crease 0.10% active travel frequency of young people.
5.2. Daily travel time
5.2.1. Effects on the elderly
Table 5 presents the Cox proportional hazards model estimation
results for daily active travel time. The final part is the model fit sta-
tistics which indicate that the model as a whole is significant in ex-
plaining the travel time expenditure. It should be noted that a positive
coefficient results in a larger value of the hazard ratio, yielding shorter
travel time.
Note again that travel attitudes – preferences for walking and cy-
cling – are not determinant factors on the elderly's travel behavior.
Possible reasons have been well explained in the preceding section.
With respect to the effects of the built environment, a higher degree of
land use mixture exerts more significant influences than high popula-
tion density. A 1% increase in land use entropy would enhance the
active travel time by 0.55%. The elderly in mixed land use neighbor-
hood spend more time on active travel. Linking to the results in.
Table 4, it is evident that the diversified developments can provide
more opportunities for accessing facilities and services by walking or
cycling. This finding suggests that land use mixture is more important
than density on shaping the active travel pattern.
Distances to leisure facilities basically have the similar impacts on
travel time as on travel frequency – the influences of distance to gym
149
Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152
and sports center are not significant while the distance to park/square
and the distance to chess/card room are significantly related to longer
duration of active travel. As well explained in the preceding model of
travel frequency, the Chinese elderly's preferences for leisure facilities
reflect the composite effects of socio-cultural norms. Interestingly,
distances to shopping facilities are unimportant in determining the
daily time expenditure of active travel, even the distance to markets.
The reason could be that the proximity to markets decreases the travel
time of each trip, which offsets the effects of the increased number of
active trips.
Arterial density and the number of parking lots show negative im-
pacts on the active travel time. Pedestrians and cyclists might feel un-
safe in the car-oriented community. Therefore, the elderly condense the
time spent on walking and cycling. Public transport provisions seem to
impose different effects. Distance to the nearest metro station shows
negligible influences on travel time. And the number of bus stops is
negatively associated with time. The good access to buses decreases the
total time expenditure for active travel because older people can easily
reach places, services, and friends through buses. It is noted that the
number of bike-sharing stations contributes a lot to time spent on active
travel.
Driving license ownership and household car ownership have in-
significant impacts on daily travel time. However, bicycle ownership
has positive effects on total time expenditure. The household structure
appears to be a prominent variable. The seniors from two-generation
and three-generation households make significantly longer-duration
trips than seniors from retiree households. The pattern of co-residence
again matters in increasing travel time. The same explanations as illu-
strated in the model of travel frequency are that the older people living
together with adult children or grandchildren engage in more house-
hold responsibilities compared with those living separately.
5.2.2. Comparisons with young adults
Similar to the results of the ZIOP model, the built environment is
less important to young adults than the elderly in terms of travel time
expenditure. Variables such as distance to chess/card room, arterial
density, the number of bus stops, and the number of bike-sharing sta-
tions are important in the elderly's travel while appear to be insignif-
icant in explaining young adults' travel. Combining the significant
variables in the frequency model (Table 4) and duration model
(Table 5), we can identify two important factors on affecting people's
active travel behavior – i.e., land use mixture and distance to park/
square. Thus, the renewal of built environment is highly recommended
in these aspects. It should also be noted that land use mixture increases
active travel time to a greater extent. A 1% increase in land use entropy
would enhance the active travel time of the elderly by 0.55%, while this
effect is 1.74% for young people.
Interestingly, preference for walking once more plays an important
role in the active travel time of young adults. This indicates that people
with positive attitudes towards walking walk or cycle for longer dura-
tions. This is different from the elderly people where attitudinal vari-
ables have non-significant effects. In regard to sociodemographic vari-
ables, transit card ownership has pronounced influences on elderly's
active travel behavior in terms of frequency and time expenditure. This
variable, on the other hand, does not have a significant effect on young
adults' active travel behavior, while driving license ownership and car
ownership have strong effects.
6. Conclusions
Active modes are the primary means of transportation for the
Chinese elderly, which contrasts with that of western countries. Given
the active-mode-dominated travel pattern and the benefits of walking
and cycling for active ageing, it is essential to understand the influen-
cing factors of active travel behavior for offering age-friendly travel
environment in China. In our study, an emphasis is placed on the
L. Cheng, et al. Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

Table 5
Cox PH model for daily active travel time.
The elderly Young adults

Coef. Elasticity Coef. Elasticity

Socio-demographics
Gender (Female = ref.)
Male 0.126(0.078)⁎⁎ / 0.024(0.069) /
Education (Low = ref.)
Middle 0.009(0.100) / 0.041(0.097) /
High 0.067(0.151) / 0.155(0.105) /
Transit card ownership (No = ref.) 0.171(0.054)⁎⁎ / 0.086(0.093) /
Driving license ownership (No = ref.) 0.108(0.177) / 0.079(0.029)⁎⁎⁎ /
Household structure (Retiree = ref.)
Two-generation household −0.562(0.121)⁎⁎⁎ / / /
Three-generation household −0.767(0.148)⁎⁎⁎ / / /
Household income (< 50,000 = ref.)
50,000–100,000 RMB −0.073(0.111) / 0.042(0.009)⁎ /
> 100,000 RMB −0.032(0.138) / 0.241(0.100)⁎⁎ /
Car ownership (No = ref.) −0.129(0.112) / 0.089(0.055)⁎ /
Bicycle ownership (No = ref.) −0.219(0.106)⁎⁎ / −0.257(0.079)⁎⁎⁎ /

Built environment
Population density −0.005(0.057) −0.014 −0.019(0.029) −0.245
Land use mixture −0.664(0.359)⁎ −0.550 −0.315(0.148)⁎ −1.745
Distance to shopping mall −0.015(0.131) −0.001 0.072(0.113) 0.173
Distance to convenience store −0.049(0.069) −0.021 0.118(0.101) 0.572
Distance to market 0.420(0.494) 0.042 0.083(0.358) 0.059
Distance to park/square 0.139(0.074)⁎⁎ 0.102 0.088(0.053)⁎ 0.542
Distance to chess/card room 0.891(0.319)⁎⁎⁎ 0.098 0.220(0.187) 0.200
Distance to gym/sports center 0.085(0.134) 0.026 0.040(0.164) 0.055
Arterial density 0.148(0.015)⁎⁎ 0.256 0.039(0.485) 0.160
The number of parking lots 0.010(0.003)⁎⁎⁎ 0.453 0.003(0.002) 0.883
Distance to metro station −0.007(0.044) −0.001 0.006(0.046) 0.031
The number of bus stops 0.026(0.022)⁎ 0.026 0.036(0.016) 1.074
The number of bike-sharing stations −0.088(0.019)⁎⁎ −0.147 −0.018(0.013) −0.469

Travel attitude
Preference for walking (No = ref.) −0.077(0.134) / −0.122(0.075)⁎ /
Preference for cycling (No = ref.) −0.097(0.096) / −0.084(0.034) /

Model fit
Likelihood ratio χ2 = 57.26 χ2 = 56.39
p = .001 p = .000
Wald χ2 = 50.84 χ2 = 52.32
p = .001 p = .000

Note: b Standard errors in parenthesis. c

“/” means not applicable. d
1RMB=US$0.16 in 2013. eDegree of freedom (DF) in the Chi-square tests are 26 and 24
respectively.
⁎
p < .10.
⁎⁎
p < .05.
⁎⁎⁎
p < .01.

influences of built environment on the active travel pattern of older
people. The results show that the special social and cultural settings
make the travel behavior of Chinese older people and its determinants
quite unique.
We utilized the Nanjing Travel Survey data to describe the active
travel patterns. Comparisons are performed with people in young age
cohorts to show that travel characteristics between older and young
adults considerably vary. A significant increase in walking trips is ob-
served as they age, and older people tend to spend much more time
walking and cycling. The co-residence of the Chinese elderly makes the
household structure an important determinant for shaping their travel
pattern. The seniors in two-generation (i.e., parents) and three-gen-
eration households (i.e., grandparents) perform more active trips and
spend more time walking/cycling. The impacts of socio-demographics
present distinct results from western countries: the availability of pri-
vate car and driving license, which is important influencing factors of
the elderly's travel behavior in western countries, is insignificant on the
active travel pattern of Chinese older people.
In regard to the effects of built environment on the elderly's beha-
vior, land use mixture has more profound impacts than population
density on enhancing active travel, including increasing the frequency
and time expenditure. A high density of population shows negligible
influences on the time expenditure. Our study demonstrates that as a
result of the Chinese socio-cultural norms, the Chinese elderly care
more about the distribution of some specific facilities. For shopping
facilities, the proximity to market is shown to have stronger influences
on the number of active trips than the proximity to shopping malls and
convenience stores. And for leisure facilities, the proximity to park/
square, and chess/card room are more significant on affecting senior's
travel pattern, compared to the proximity to gym/sports center. Among
all the influential factors of the built environment, land use mixture
appears to have the largest effect on seniors' active travel. As a result,
policy measures should focus more on creating mixed-use neighbor-
hoods in order to promote the active travel of older adults.
Furthermore, we found that travel attitudes do not show any significant
effects on the active travel pattern. This finding indicates that self-se-
lection effects are limited to the travel behavior of older people.
Interesting findings could be made when comparing the model es-
timation results of the elderly and the young. The built environment has
larger effects on the active travel frequency and duration of the elderly
than on that of young adults. For instance, distance to chess/card room,
the number of bus stops, the number of bike-sharing stations

150
L. Cheng, et al. Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152

significantly affect elderly's active travel behavior. These variables,
however, exert insignificant influences on young adults. Two important
elements affecting the travel pattern of both age cohorts are land use
mixture and distance to park/square. Different from that of the elderly,
preference for walking has important and positive impacts on the
young's active travel. This result suggests the heterogeneity of self-se-
lection. It might mean that the self-selection is significant on affecting
travel behavior of young adults while it is insignificant on affecting that
of older adults.
The study highlights the importance of accounting for Chinese
socio-cultural norms in comprehending the travel behavior of the older
people. The built environment is shown to be influential on active
travel and therefore active ageing. However, the current study has some
limitations. First, we treated all the older people as one group without
distinguishing the sub-age cohorts (e.g., 60–70, 70–80 and 80+), and
did not examine the behavioral heterogeneity among older people.
Second, the single travel attitude measurement may not completely
capture the impacts of self-selection (e.g., preference for the neigh-
borhood design was not measured). More comprehensive and direct
indicators of attitudes should be considered for accounting self-selec-
tion effects, capturing the causal relations between the built environ-
ment and travel behavior.
Acknowledgments
This research is sponsored by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (71801041, 71771049, and 71601052).

Appendix A. The zero-inflated part of ZIOP model estimation results

Zero-inflated part The elderly Young adults

Socio-demographics
Gender (Female = ref.)
Male 0.345(0.151)b⁎⁎ 0.427(0.258)⁎
Education (Low = ref.)
Middle −0.013(0.178) 0.521(0.448)
High 0.367(0.217) 1.397(0.419)⁎⁎⁎
Transit card ownership (No = ref.) −1.217(0.466)⁎ 0.318(0.491)
Driving license ownership (No = ref.) 0.336(0.225) 1.440(1.038)⁎
Household structure (Retiree = ref.)
Two-generation household −0.315(0.202)⁎⁎ /c
Three-generation household −0.219(0.117)⁎ /
Household income (< 50,000 = ref.)
50,000–100,000 RMBd −0.016(0.114) 0.421(0.321)
> 100,000 RMB −0.176(0.227) 0.334(0.389)
Car ownership (No = ref.) 0.176(0.174) 0.995(0.580)⁎
Bicycle ownership (No = ref.) −0.430(0.160)⁎⁎ −0.630(0.295)⁎⁎

Built environment
Population density −0.379(0.115)⁎ −0.302(0.286)
Land use mixture −1.413(0.508)⁎⁎⁎ −0.679(0.403)⁎
Distance to shopping mall 0.395(0.232) 0.902(0.616)
Distance to convenience store 0.149(0.103) 0.583(0.449)
Distance to market 0.216(0.083)⁎⁎⁎ −1.808(2.141)
Distance to park/square 0.111(0.054)⁎⁎ 0.243(0.165)⁎
Distance to chess/card room 0.826(0.402)⁎⁎ −1.068(0.933)
Distance to gym/sports center −0.654(0.443) −0.919(0.643)⁎
Arterial density 0.150(0.061)⁎⁎ 0.295(0.216)⁎
The number of parking lots 0.005(0.006) 0.058(0.051)
Distance to metro station 0.112(0.154) −0.663(0.225)⁎⁎⁎
The number of bus stops −0.032(0.021)⁎⁎ −0.099(0.069)
The number of bike-sharing stations −0.055(0.033)⁎⁎ −0.017(0.058)

Travel attitude
Preference for walking (No = ref.) −0.083(0.141) −0.221(0.084)⁎⁎
Preference for cycling (No = ref.) −0.227(0.255) −0.130(0.157)
b
Standard errors in parenthesis
c
“/” means not applicable.
d
1RMB=US$0.16 in 2013.
⁎
p < .10.
⁎⁎
p < .05.
⁎⁎⁎
p < .01.

References
Alsnih, R., Hensher, D.A., 2003. The mobility and accessibility expectations of seniors in
an aging population. Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 37 (10), 903–916.
Banister, D., Bowling, A., 2004. Quality of life for the elderly: the transport dimension.
Transp. Policy 11 (2), 105–115.
Böcker, L., van Amen, P., Helbich, M., 2017. Elderly travel frequencies and transport
mode choices in Greater Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Transportation 44 (4),
831–852.
Borst, H.C., de Vries, S.I., Graham, J.M., van Dongen, J.E., Bakker, I., Miedema, H.M.,
2009. Influence of environmental street characteristics on walking route choice of
elderly people. J. Environ. Psychol. 29 (4), 477–484.
Buehler, R., Pucher, J., 2012. Walking and cycling in Western Europe and the United
States: trends, policies, and lessons. TR News (280), 34–42.
Cao, X.J., Ettema, D.F., 2014. Satisfaction with travel and residential self-selection: how
do preferences moderate the impact of the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line? J.
Transp. Land Use 7 (3), 93–108.
Cao, X., Mokhtarian, P.L., Handy, S.L., 2009. Examining the impacts of residential self-
selection on travel behaviour: a focus on empirical findings. Transp. Rev. 29 (3),
359–395.
Cao, X., Mokhtarian, P.L., Handy, S.L., 2010. Neighborhood design and the accessibility
of the elderly: an empirical analysis in Northern California. Int. J. Sustain. Transp. 4
(6), 347–371.
Chen, Y., 2004. The leisure ideas in traditional Chinese culture. In: Studies in Dialectics of
Nature. 5. pp. 22–27.

151
L. Cheng, et al.
Cheng, L., Chen, X., Lam, W.H., Yang, S., Wang, P., 2017a. Improving travel quality of
low-income commuters in China: demand-side perspective. Transp. Res. Rec. 2605,
99–108.
Cheng, L., Chen, X., Yang, S., Wu, J., Yang, M., 2017b. Structural equation models to
analyze activity participation, trip generation, and mode choice of low-income
commuters. Transp. Lett In press.
Craney, T.A., Surles, J.G., 2002. Model-dependent variance inflation factor cutoff values.
Qual. Eng. 14 (3), 391–403.
Currie, G., Delbosc, A., 2010. Exploring public transport usage trends in an ageing po-
pulation. Transportation 37 (1), 151–164.
De Vos, J., Witlox, F., 2016. Do people live in urban neighbourhoods because they do not
like to travel? Analysing an alternative residential self-selection hypothesis. Travel
Behav. Soc. 4, 29–39.
De Vos, J., Schwanen, T., Van Acker, V., Witlox, F., 2013. Travel and subjective well-
being: a focus on findings, methods and future research needs. Transp. Rev. 33 (4),
421–442.
De Vos, J., Mokhtarian, P.L., Schwanen, T., Van Acker, V., Witlox, F., 2016. Travel mode
choice and travel satisfaction: bridging the gap between decision utility and experi-
enced utility. Transportation 43 (5), 771–796.
Ettema, D., Schwanen, T., Timmermans, H., 2007. The effect of location, mobility and
socio-demographic factors on task and time allocation of households. Transportation
34 (1), 89–105.
Ewing, R., Cervero, R., 2001. Travel and the built environment: a synthesis. Transp. Res.
Rec. 1780, 87–114.
Ewing, R., Cervero, R., 2010. Travel and the built environment: a meta-analysis. J. Am.
Plan. Assoc. 76 (3), 265–294.
Feng, J., 2017. The influence of built environment on travel behavior of the elderly in
urban China. Transp. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ. 52, 619–633.
Feng, J., Dijst, M., Wissink, B., Prillwitz, J., 2013. The impacts of household structure on
the travel behaviour of seniors and young parents in China. J. Transp. Geogr. 30,
117–126.
Figueroa, M.J., Nielsen, T.A.S., Siren, A., 2014. Comparing urban form correlations of the
travel patterns of older and younger adults. Transp. Policy 35, 10–20.
Hall, K.S., McAuley, E., 2010. Individual, social environmental and physical environ-
mental barriers to achieving 10,000 steps per day among older women. Health Educ.
Res. 25 (3), 478–488.
Hanson, T.R., Hildebrand, E.D., 2011. Can rural older drivers meet their needs without a
car? Stated adaptation responses from a GPS travel diary survey. Transportation 38
(6), 975–992.
Hess, D.B., 2009. Access to public transit and its influence on ridership for older adults in
two US cities. J. Transp. Land Use 2 (1), 3–27.
Hess, P., Moudon, A., Snyder, M., Stanilov, K., 1999. Site design and pedestrian travel.
Transp. Res. Rec. 1674, 9–19.
Hjorthol, R.J., Levin, L., Sirén, A., 2010. Mobility in different generations of older per-
sons: the development of daily travel in different cohorts in Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. J. Transp. Geogr. 18 (5), 624–633.
Ito, E., Walker, G.J., Liang, H., 2014. A systematic review of non-Western and cross-
cultural/national leisure research. J. Leis. Res. 46 (2), 226–239.
Kemperman, A., Timmermans, H., 2009. Influences of built environment on walking and
cycling by latent segments of aging population. Transp. Res. Rec. 2134, 1–9.
Kim, S., Ulfarsson, G., 2004. Travel mode choice of the elderly: effects of personal,
household, neighborhood, and trip characteristics. Transp. Res. Rec. 1894, 117–126.
Lera-López, F., Sánchez, M., Faulin, J., Cacciolatti, L., 2014. Rural environment stake-
holders and policy making: willingness to pay to reduce road transportation pollution
impact in the Western Pyrenees. Transp. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ. 32, 129–142.
152
Journal of Transport Geography 76 (2019) 142–152
Li, H., Raeside, R., Chen, T., McQuaid, R.W., 2012. Population ageing, gender and the
transportation system. Res. Transp. Econ. 34 (1), 39–47.
Liu, H., Yeh, C.K., Chick, G.E., Zinn, H.C., 2008. An exploration of meanings of leisure: a
Chinese perspective. Leis. Sci. 30 (5), 482–488.
Mercado, R., Páez, A., 2009. Determinants of distance traveled with a focus on the el-
derly: a multilevel analysis in the Hamilton CMA, Canada. J. Transp. Geogr. 17 (1),
65–76.
Michael, Y., Beard, T., Choi, D., Farquhar, S., Carlson, N., 2006a. Measuring the influence
of built neighborhood environments on walking in older adults. J. Aging Phys. Act.
14 (3), 302–312.
Michael, Y., Green, M.K., Farquhar, S.A., 2006b. Neighborhood design and active aging.
Health Place 12 (4), 734–740.
Mifsud, D., Attard, M., Ison, S., 2017. To drive or to use the bus? An exploratory study of
older people in Malta. J. Transp. Geogr. 64, 23–32.
Moniruzzaman, M., Paez, A., 2016. An investigation of the attributes of walkable en-
vironments from the perspective of seniors in Montreal. J. Transp. Geogr. 51, 85–96.
Nanjing Institute of City and Transport Planning, 2014. Annual Report of Nanjing Traffic
Development 2013. Nanjing, China.
Nanjing Municipal Bureau Statistics, 2014. Statistical yearbook of Nanjing 2014. China
Statistics Press, Beijing, China.
Newbold, K.B., Scott, D.M., Spinney, J.E., Kanaroglou, P., Páez, A., 2005. Travel behavior
within Canada's older population: a cohort analysis. J. Transp. Geogr. 13 (4),
340–351.
Nordbakke, S., Schwanen, T., 2015. Transport, unmet activity needs and wellbeing in
later life: exploring the links. Transportation 42 (6), 1129–1151.
Ohnmacht, T., Götz, K., Schad, H., 2009. Leisure mobility styles in Swiss conurbations:
construction and empirical analysis. Transportation 36 (2), 243–265.
Pettersson, P., Schmöcker, J.D., 2010. Active ageing in developing countries? Trip gen-
eration and tour complexity of older people in Metro Manila. J. Transp. Geogr. 18 (5),
613–623.
Rosenbloom, S., 2001. Sustainability and automobility among the elderly: an interna-
tional assessment. Transportation 28 (4), 375–408.
Scheiner, J., 2010. Social inequalities in travel behaviour: trip distances in the context of
residential self-selection and lifestyles. J. Transp. Geogr. 18 (6), 679–690.
Schmöcker, J.D., Quddus, M.A., Noland, R.B., Bell, M.G., 2008. Mode choice of older and
disabled people: a case study of shopping trips in London. J. Transp. Geogr. 16 (4),
257–267.
Schwanen, T., Dijst, M., Dieleman, F.M., 2001. Leisure trips of senior citizens: determi-
nants of modal choice. Tijdschr. Econ. Soc. Geogr. 92 (3), 347–360.
State Council of China, 2017. National Population Development Plan. Retrieved from.
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-01/25/content_5163309.htm.
Szeto, W.Y., Yang, L., Wong, R.C.P., Li, Y.C., Wong, S.C., 2017. Spatio-temporal travel
characteristics of the elderly in an ageing society. Travel Behav. Soc. 9, 10–20.
United Nations, 2017. World Population Aging 2017. United Nation Publication, New
York, United States.
Van den Berg, P., Arentze, T., Timmermans, H., 2011. Estimating social travel demand of
senior citizens in the Netherlands. J. Transp. Geogr. 19 (2), 323–331.
World Health Organization, 2002. Active Ageing: A Policy Framework. WHO Publication,
Geneva, Switzerland.
Yang, S., Fan, Y., Deng, W., Cheng, L., 2017. Do built environment effects on travel be-
havior differ between household members? A case study of Nanjing, China. Transp.
Policy (in press).
Zhang, H., 2015. Study on the Choice of Traffic Mode and Departure Time of the Elderly
in Shenzhen. Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen,
China.