Relationship between Built Environment and Elderly Active Travel of Based on Group Heterogeneity

In the context of healthy aging, active travel is an effective way to improve the physical and mental health and quality of life of the elderly. The built environment is an important factor affecting the active travel of the elderly. Using data from 2013 Nanjing Household Travel Survey and built environment data, this study analyzed the heterogeneity of elderly groups based on latent class clustering, and then used a random forest method to scrutinize the importance magnitude of built environment indicators on the active travel time of different elderly groups and the nonlinear relationship between the build environment and elderly active travel. The results show that the five category variables of gender, whether retired, education, household income, and whether has preschool children in the family can be used as the exogenous variables to further classify the elderly groups into two main categories. The overall goodness of fit of the classified random forest model were significantly improved. The major built environment variables that significantly affect the first identified elderly group are the density of the active road network, the number of intersections, and the proximity to subway stations. The factors that significantly affect the active travel time of the second identified elderly group are the proximity to subway stations, the density of the active road network, and the density of residential buildings. The non-linear relationships of the same built environment indicator to the active travel time of the two elderly groups are different. The result of this study provides a theoretical reference for the policy making to facilitate the elderly travel environment and ultimately advance the healthy aging. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.