The Burdens of Place: A Socio-economic and Ethnic/Racial Exploration into Urban Form, Accessibility and Travel Behaviour in the Lansing Capital Region, Michigan

Abstract

The paper examines the relationship between urban form, socio-economic status, ethnicity, accessibility and pedestrian activity in the Lansing Capital Region, Michigan. This research explores the burdens of urban environments through a study of accessibility and travel behaviour in an urban region characterized by rapid suburbanization and urban decline. Specifically, the study seeks to answer how socio-economic and ethnic status affect accessibility and travel behaviour in urban environments that have traditionally been viewed as promoting walking; built environments characterized by higher densities, mixed land uses and greater connectivity. The research shows that the traditional relationship between higher densities, mixed land uses, higher connectivity, greater accessibility and pedestrian activity is not as strong in declining inner cities.

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Michael Southworth and the two reviewers for the great comments that played an important role in improving the quality of this paper. They would also like to thank Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute, Community Vitality Program and the Obesity Interest Group for funding this research. The authors are extremely grateful for the assistance of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health & Sports in Michigan, and particularly Ms. Marilyn Lieber (President and CEO) and Risa Wilkerson (currently with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Finally, the support of Ms. Julie Brixie (currently Meridian Township Treasurer) and Mr Jim van Ravensway (Director of Planning and Community Development, City of East Lansing) are also greatly appreciated. Thank you so much Julie and Jim.

Notes

1. There was an average of 184 public transit trips weekly across the six neighbourhoods, with the majority of these trips in the urban neighbourhoods and essentially zero trips by transit in the outer suburbs. Because of such a low number of trips, transit was excluded from this analysis.

2. Weighted distance functions were used to calculate minimal in-network travel distance. ESRI Arc/Info GRID based spatial analysis tools were used to produce maps and data displaying distance. The output grid shows the distance surface of each house to the closest major regional supermarket chain in metres. These classes of functions are similar to Euclidean distance functions, but instead of calculating the actual distance from one point to another, they determine the shortest weighted distance from each cell to the nearest cell in the set of source cells.

3. In adults, a BMI (Body Mass Index) value of 18.5 to 24.9 is normal, a value of 25.0 to 29.9 is overweight, while a value of 30.0 or higher is obese.