Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3601: The Impact of Spatial Distribution of Commercial Facilities in Communities on Residents` Walking-Based Consumption Behavior: A Case Study in Wuhan, China (Sustainability)

With the development of residential communities, commercial facilities serving the residents first emerged spontaneously inside of the communities and later were planned as a supporting component on the fringe but outside of the communities. Thus, two patterns in the distribution of commercial facilities can be found in their spatial relations to the communities they serve, namely, internal distribution and external fringe distribution. Previous debates on these two distribution patterns tend to focus more on the differences in community vitality, environmental quality, community security, etc., but less on the impact of spatial distribution of commercial facilities on residents’ walking-based consumption behavior which affects the quality of life of residents, their physical health, and their social interaction and communication. Therefore, the study conducts a quantitative, empirical, comparative study of the walking-based consumption behavior of residents in two communities, which are located across the street from one another, share similar conditions, but have totally different patterns in the distribution of commercial facilities. The results of analysis show that compared with residents living in a residential community with an external fringe distribution of commercial facilities, those who can access commercial facilities within their community have a shorter walking distance, stronger local consumption willingness, higher frequency, and shorter travel chain to use these facilities, resulting in distinctly different features in their respective walking-based consumption behavior in the communities. A further binary logistic regression analysis shows that the shorter travel distance by foot in a community with internal facilities is the root cause of the above differences, and travel distance significantly affects walking-based consumption behavior. This conclusion strongly supports the internal distribution of commercial facilities in residential communities, which bears practical significance for promoting the vitality and the robust development of communities.