A Study on the Impact of Street Environment on Elderly Leisure Path Preferences Based on the Stated Preference Method (SP Method)

Evaluation of a recreational walking environment for the elderly is an essential method for planning intervention in constructing a walking environment. The Stated Preference method, discrete choice model, Spearman correlation analysis, and logistic regression model are used to build the evaluation index system of the leisure walking environment for the elderly and obtain its corresponding weight value. The study also explored the differences in preferences for recreational trails among older adults with different personal characteristics. It found that the Stated Preference method is a well-established method for evaluating the quality of recreational walking environments for older adults. Older walkers have shown a heightened sensitivity to certain factors, such as the degree of street shading, effective sidewalk width, street leveling, traffic volume, street interface openness, percentage of green interface, service facility density, and commercial storefront density. Understanding these sensitivities can help us design more empathetic and age-friendly walking environments. Among them, older adults with poorer health preferred street environment factors with less traffic, higher street leveling, and better service facilities. Quantitatively evaluating the recreational walking environment for the elderly provides a new way of thinking from a behavioral perspective to enhance its sustainability and age-friendliness.