Does area type matter for pedestrian distribution? Testing movement economy theory on gated and non-gated housing estates in Wuhan, China

This study investigates how the built environment influences pedestrian distribution in housing estates and whether its influence differs between gated and non-gated housing types. This study is built upon the theoretical framework of the movement economy, initially proposed by scholars from the Space Syntax Laboratory and recently extended by others. The extended movement economy framework conceptualises the interrelationship between street configuration, functional uses, physical structures, and pedestrian movement. To evaluate the hypothesised associations within this theoretical framework, we constructed structural equation modelling using pedestrian movement data of 606 locations from six pairs of gated and non-gated housing estates in Wuhan, China. We assessed the direct, indirect, and total effects of street configuration, functional uses, and physical structures on pedestrian movement. We then conducted a multigroup analysis to determine whether statistically significant differences exist between gated and non-gated housing areas regarding how the three spatial factors affect pedestrian movement. The findings indicated that the structural model could explain over 60 % of variances on pedestrian movement data, regardless of housing types. Although pedestrian movement demonstrated statistically significant correlations with street configuration, functional use, and physical structure, the street configuration was the most powerful and reliable predictor of all. This paper also evidenced that functional use and physical structure were two effective mediators between street configuration and pedestrian movement, albeit with small mediating effect sizes. More importantly, the results also uncovered several statistically significant differences in the builtenvironmental influences between gated and non-gated models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that (i) verifies the direct, indirect, and total effects of the built environment on pedestrian movement in Chinese housing estates; and (ii) confirms statistically significant differences between gated and non-gated housing types in their built-environmental impacts on pedestrian movement. •The movement economy theory is applicable to explaining pedestrian movement patterns in China's housing estates.•Street configuration, functional uses, and physical structures have direct effects on pedestrian movement patterns.•Street configuration has indirect effects on pedestrian movement pattern,