How does visual environment affect outdoor jogging behavior? Insights from large-scale city images and GPS trajectories

Understanding the relationships between visual environment (VE) and outdoor jogging is crucial to facilitating effective environmental interventions. However, how the visual environment affects jogging behavior remains unclear due to data and technology limitations. This study aimed to explore the spatially and temporally varying effects of visual environment on jogging behavior. Specifically, street view images and geotagged photos were used to measure the visual environment outside and inside the traffic analysis zone (TAZ), respectively; and massive GPS trajectories collected from a fitness application were utilized to estimate jogging activities. Furthermore, random forest and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) models were established to examine the impacts of VE on jogging flow in Beijing, China. Results showed that visual greenery, openness, and walkability play an important role in determining jogging behaviors. Effects of some VE variables display distinct scale effects and spatial non-stationarity. Notably, the dual effects or synergistic effects of specific VE factors, such as visual greenery, walkability, between inside and outside the TAZ were identified. Effects of certain VE factors, e.g., visual greenness, openness, on jogging behavior vary across peak-hours, weekdays and weekends, and seasons, respectively. These findings have practical implications in city planning design for building jogging-friendly urban environment.