A Nexus or Not? A First Examination of Cost-of-Living Concern, Neighbourhood Perceptions, Active Travel, and Wellbeing in Cities

Abstract

This paper is a first step in the literature, looking at potential links between cost-of-living stress and the perceptions of local neighbourhoods, under the hypothesis that greater pressure about housing affordability, transportation costs, or indeed cost-of-living overall could lead to a degradation in how the neighbourhood within which a person lives is perceived. We find confirmation that cost-of-living goes beyond technical measures of housing stress and indeed beyond just housing stress alone. Of relevance is that those who could be classified as having rising concern (consumables) have among the highest levels of relative stress. We find that there is generally just as much concern about the rising cost of fuel, which is directly related to trip making, further compounding transport accessibility and equity. Overall, our first attempt to investigate the potential nexus of cost-of-living, neighbourhood perception, wellbeing, physical activity and active travel, produces enough evidence and insight to establish that there are potential links which are likely to play out in unknown ways during cost-of-living crises. We argue that our results are sufficient enough that research should extend them to transportation costs and trip making more generally and urge other researchers to consider building on these insights.