Abstract—One of the common aims of transport policy makers is to switch people’s travel to active transport. For this purpose, a variety of transport goals and investments should be programmed to increase the propensity towards active transport mode choice. This paper aims to investigate whether built environment features in neighbourhoods could enhance the odds of active transportation. The present study introduces an index measuring public transport accessibility (PTAI), and a walkability index along with socioeconomic variables to investigate mode choice behaviour. Using travel behaviour data, an ordered logit regression model is applied to examine the impacts of explanatory variables on walking trips. The findings indicated that high rates of active travel are consistently associated with higher levels of walking and public transport accessibility. Keywords—Active transport, public transport accessibility, walkability, ordered logit model. I. INTRODUCTION ROVIDING efficient walkable neighbourhoods is one of the main objectives of policy makers and planners throughout the world. In recent decades, automobile-oriented developments along with the increase in car ownership have encouraged people to have more passive travels. High level of car dependency is not only affecting quality of life, but critically threatening people’s health. On the other hand, the growing use of private motorized vehicles has resulted in critical issues such as traffic congestion and environmental impacts. These phenomena mean that auto-oriented transport is needed for regular trips, such as travelling to work, school and shopping. In this regard, the increased time spent in cars is sedentary travel behaviour replacing active forms of transport. The way in which cities and transport corridors are designed and developed has been found to be an important contributor to physical inactivity [1]-[3]. Australia has been categorized among countries with highest car ownership [4] and particular groups of people such as youth, seniors, low-income households and aboriginals have found to encounter difficulties in accessing work, education and social or cultural activities [4]-[6]. This paper presents a review of previous researches in this area. There are numerous studies focusing on measuring walkability. However, there are limited works which consider the walking distances to different destinations as one of the main barriers of active transport. Therefore, the current study describes a new concept to measure walking accessibility followed by an implementation of the new index in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. The paper is also Tayebeh Saghapour is with the RMIT University, Australia (e-mail: tayebeh.saghapour@rmit.edu.au). presenting the results of a comparison of the new index with one of the most common approaches measuring walking accessibility. The following section provides background information. The methodology section describes the approach of the computation for the index, analysis and results of the application of the WAI in the Melbourne region, along with a comparison of the results between the new index and existing approaches is also presented. Discussions and conclusions summarize the key findings of the research, and lastly, the limitations of the study and future research direction are outlined. II. BACKGROUND The link between the built environment and travel behaviour has received considerable research attention in recent decades [7], [8]. The arrangement or distribution of land use activities in the surroundings of living areas is one of the main factors found to influence urban transport patterns. Providing services and utilities for residents in their neighbourhoods is a way to minimize the need to travel long distances and increase the chance of active travels. There is a long tradition of investigation about the association between the built environment and travel behaviour; however, from the late 1970s, researchers have focused on travel behaviour and policies [9], [10]. Transport and urban planners, as well as health practitioners have recently turned towards promoting physical activity by environmental solutions. Low density, less mixed-use and less walkable neighbourhoods and suburbs in metropolitan areas intensify automobile dependency amongst residents. In 2012, Lee et al. conducted a study to examine the impact of the built environment on individuals’ mode choice. The results of their research indicated that built environment features including population density, entropy index, and connectivity significantly influenced an individual’s mode choice depending on the trip destinations and trip purposes [9]. The present study aims at investigating whether areas with more walkable neighbourhoods with higher levels of access to public transport stops/stations would have higher rates odds of active transportation. III. METHODS A. Study Area A database of Mesh Blocks from the 2011 Census for the Melbourne Region was accessible from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) [1]. This data set contains the total usual resident population and total number of dwellings from the Evaluation of Neighbourhood Characteristics and Active Transport Mode Choice Tayebeh Saghapour, Sara Moridpour, Russell George Thompson P World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Transport and Vehicle Engineering Vol:11, No:5, 2017 586 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 11(5) 2017 ISNI:0000000091950263 Open Science Index, Transport and Vehicle Engineering Vol:11, No:5, 2017 publications.waset.org/10007006/pdf