Daily Walking among Commuters: A cross-sectional study of associaations with residential, work, and regional accessibility in Melbourne, Australia (2012-2014)

Background: Most research on walking for transport has focused on the walkability of residential neighborhoods, overlooking the contribution of places of work/study and the ease with which destinations outside the immediate neighborhood can be accessed, referred to as regional accessibility. Objectives: We aimed to examine if local accessibility/walkability around place of work/study and regional accessibility are independently and interactively associated with walking. Methods: A sample of 4,913 adult commuters was derived from a household travel survey in Melbourne, Australia (2012–2014). Local accessibility was measured as the availability of destinations within an 800-m pedestrian network from homes and places of work/education using a local living index [LLI; 0–3 (low), 4–6, 7–9, and 10–12 (high) destinations]. Regional accessibility was estimated using employment opportunity, commute travel time by mode, and public transport accessibility. Every individual’s potential minutes of walking for each level of exposure (observed and counter to fact) were predicted using multivariable regression models including confounders and interaction terms. For each contrast of exposure levels of interest, the corresponding within-individual differences in predicted walking were averaged across individuals to estimate marginal effects. Results: High LLI at home and work/education was associated with more minutes walking than low LLI by 3.9 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.3, 5.5] and 8.3 (95% CI: 7.3, 9.3) min, respectively, in mutually adjusted models. Across regional accessibility measures, an independent association with walking and an interactive association with LLI at work/education was observed. To take one example, the regional accessibility measure of “Jobs within 30 min by public transport” was associated with 4.3 (95% CI: 2.9, 5.7) more mins walking for high (≥30,000 jobs) compared with low (