Publication Date

1-1-2023

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of the American Planning Association

Volume

89

Issue

2

DOI

10.1080/01944363.2022.2069590

First Page

225

Last Page

239

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Considering that safety is a key environmental factor that promotes health, understanding the relationship between built environment features around transit station areas and crime may shed light on how to foster healthy communities. Yet, there is limited work that has examined how the combination of different built environment features around transit correlate with different crimes. We addressed this issue in this study using data from Chicago (IL). First, we used cluster analysis to classify stations in Chicago in a spectrum from transit-oriented development (TOD) to transit-adjacent development (TAD) categories depending on their built environment characteristics: central business district (CBD)–TOD, TOD, hybrid, and TAD. Then, we identified the block groups that fell within a 1-mile network distance of each of these station areas and used propensity score matching to find adequate comparison block groups for them. Results from our analyses show that CBD station areas with the highest activity density, land use diversity, amenity richness, accessibility, and walkability (i.e., CBD–TOD) were the safest. In contrast, TOD areas with medium activity density and land use diversity but high amenity richness, walkability, and accessibility appeared to be the least safe. That said, low levels across these built environment features as found in TAD station areas also correlated with higher crime. Takeaway for practice: These findings suggest the importance of balancing amenity richness and accessibility with density and land use diversity. Areas rich in amenities but with lower levels of land use diversity and density may attract crime victims and offenders while facilitating spaces in which the availability of eyes on the street or guardians is low. As such, these station areas may be poor promoters of healthy communities if high crime rates deter people from engaging in active mobility promoted by greater walkability, connectivity, and amenity richness.

Keywords

built environment, crime, healthy communities, safety, transit-oriented development

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of the American Planning Association on 06 July, 2022, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01944363.2022.2069590

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Department

Urban and Regional Planning

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