A structural equation model for happy streets in urban residential neighborhoods

Abstract

Urban areas provide opportunities to make people richer and recent studies have found more depression symptoms among these city residents in comparison to those who live in rural neighborhoods. Nowadays, most urban dwellers are not happy. Motorized lifestyle, air pollution, and noise pollution, as well as the stress are negative externalities of urban areas that can reduce happiness. Although happiness can be affected by environmental and design factors, there are very limited studies on happy environment, specifically at the street level. Therefore, this research identified the main street factors that can affect happiness. This research was divided into five stages to achieve its objectives. The first stage involved conducting a literature review to identify effective happy street factors and proposing a conceptual happy street model. The second stage was about designing a questionnaire based on a proposed conceptual model. In the third stage, 400 participants were interviewed to collect the data. These participants were randomly selected among Johor Bahru residents. The fourth stage involved the Structural Equation Modeling technique, which was applied to analyze data and develop the final happy street model. The final stage prioritized the significant factors in the proposed model to have happier streets. Initially, the main effective happy street factors extracted from the literature review were color, light, shape, environmental factors, social factors, and street facilities. In addition, related sub-factors were also extracted from the literature review. Happy street factors and their hypothetical relationships with happiness were used to develop the conceptual happy street model. The final happy street model was measured using Structural Equation Modeling technique to demonstrate the significant happy street factors with high level of associations. Based on prioritizing the level of associations, a final happy street model containing street facilities, shape, social factors, environmental factors, color, and light, which can be used to improve analytical street designs, as well as the assessment and improvement process to have happier streets was developed.