Street centrality and vitality of a healthy catering industry: A case study of Jinan, China

Abstract

In the context of an overall improvement in the national economy, residents' demand for nutrition and health has been increasing. An industry that provides healthy eating plays an increasingly important role in urban development. Few studies, however, have focused on the relationship between the urban road network structure and the vitality of the healthy catering industry (VHCI). Based on social media data and urban traffic network data, in this study, we explored the impact mechanism of street centrality on the VHCI through a case study of Jinan, China, using geographic detectors and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) methods. The results show the following: First, the vitality of the catering industry in the main urban area of Jinan has multicore spatial distribution characteristics, and the high-value areas of the vitality of the catering industry are highly matched with the main business districts in the city in space. Second, we found clear spatial differences in street centrality between the walking and driving modes. With an increase in the search radius, the trend of high-value areas closely gathering in the urban center became clearer. The distribution of betweenness was observed from sheet to grid, and the multicenter structure of straightness was more prominent. Third, differences in the residents' perception of the road network structure caused by different travel modes affected their choice of dining places. In the driving mode, betweenness and straightness had a greater impact on the vitality of the catering industry, and the effect of closeness in the walking mode was more obvious. Fourth, the influence of street centrality on the vitality of the healthy catering industry had obvious spatial heterogeneity. In the walking mode, the spatial heterogeneity of straightness was the strongest, followed by betweenness, and closeness was the weakest; in the driving mode, the spatial heterogeneity of closeness was the strongest, followed by straightness, and betweenness was the weakest. From the perspective of residents' travel, the results of this study revealed the influence mechanism of urban road network characteristics on the VHCI. This information can aid planning for urban space optimization and improve residential living quality.