Driving in shopping districts reduced by lower speed limit and fewer driveway crossings

Robert Schneider, "Walk or Drive between Stores? Designing Neighbourhood Shopping Districts for Pedestrian Activity," Journal of Urban Design 20 (2015): 2

The take-away: With implications for the design of roadways in shopping districts, this article asks what design features encourage consumers to walk or drive between their various destinations in a shopping district. They find that the decision to walk is associated with “fewer driveway crossings and a lower speed limit” (abstract). 

Abstract: What design features are associated with people choosing to walk vs. drive between activities within shopping districts? This exploratory study used mixed-logit discrete choice modelling to analyze survey responses from 286 retail pharmacy store customers who travelled by personal automobile to one of 20 San Francisco Bay Area shopping districts, and then visited at least two activity locations within the district. The 91 customers who walked rather than drove within the shopping district tended to travel shorter distances and have several other common personal characteristics. After controlling for these factors, respondents were significantly more likely to walk when the main commercial roadway had fewer driveway crossings and a lower speed limit.

Full article (requires access)