Influence of Transportation Accessibility on Urban-rural Income Disparity and Its Spatial Heterogeneity

Transportation accessibility has been treated as an important means of reducing the urban-rural income disparity.However,only a few studies have examined the effects of different types of transportation accessibility on urban-rural income disparity and their spatial heterogeneity.Based on data from 285 prefecture-level(and above)Chinese cities in 2000,2005,2010,2015,and 2020,this study uses spatial econometric models to examine how highway accessibility and railway accessibility influence the urban-rural income disparity and to identify their spatial heterogeneity.The result reveals that highway accessibility and railway accessibility have‘coreperiphery’ring-like circle structures.The urban-rural income disparity exhibits strong spatial clustering effects.Both highway accessibility and railway accessibility are negatively associated with urban-rural income disparity,and the former having a greater effect size.Moreover,there is a substitution effect between highway accessibility and railway accessibility in the whole sample.Furthermore,these associations differ in geographic regions.In the central region,highway accessibility is more important in reducing the urban-rural income disparity,but its effect is weakened with the increase of railway accessibility.In the western region,railway accessibility has a larger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income disparity,and this effect is strengthened by the increase of highway accessibility.We conclude that improving transportation accessibility is conducive to reducing the urban-rural income disparity but its effect is spatial heterogenetic.Highways and railways should be developed in a coordinated manner to promote an integrated transport network system.

Spatiotemporal evolution of land transportation networks and accessibility in inland mountainous areas 1917-2017:A case study of Southwest China

Located in the western hinterland,Southwest China is a typical mountainous area covered by plateaus,mountains and hills.Its ruggedness hinders regional internal and external connections,and its poor transportation infrastructure has long constrained the socioeconomic development of Southwest China.Based on the GIS transportation database,this paper explored the spatiotemporal evolution and characteristics of the land transportation networks and the accessibility of Southwest China from 1917 to 2017.Regional accessibility in Southwest China has significantly improved,and transportation infrastructure has gradually integrated the transportation circles of the52 central cities.The transportation network has followed an evolutionary process from a"hub-spoke pattern"to a"network pattern",while the construction of a high-speed railway(HSR)has brought about significant spatial polarization.We argue that innovation in transportation technology is one of the most effective factors for promoting a significant change in regional accessibility.In addition,the spatial distribution and evolution of accessibility in Southwest China presents a verticalcharacteristic that distinguishes it from the plains,as the spillover effects of new transportation infrastructure on accessibility improvement are partly offset by the mountainous terrain.Additionally,in Southwest China,there is significant"path dependence"in the evolution of the transportation network,since a large portion of the population is concentrated along transportation corridors in mountainous areas.

Spatial Accessibility to Shopping Malls in Nanjing,China:Comparative Analysis with Multiple Transportation Modes

This study attempts to evaluate the rationality of the spatial layout of shopping malls and identify the urban area with poor shopping mall accessibility,as well as to provide a reference and assist decision-making for planning.Using the case of Nanjing,China,this study developed a method to evaluate the accessibility of shopping malls by three transport modes(car traffic,public transit,and bicycle).Specially,we divide the urban space into a regular hexagonal grid and harvest the total travel time from each of 7204 hexagon centroids to each of 129 shopping malls using the Baidu Internet map.The door-to-door travel time approach is used to evaluate all travel stages(walking,waiting,transfer,and transportation)based on travel time calculations.We further divide the shopping malls into two levels(super-regional and regional)based on the Dianping App’s information and develop the indicator of accessibility to shopping malls:the number of shopping malls within tolerance time thresholds and apply the closest facility and cumulative opportunities methods to measure accessibility scores.The results show that the accessibility estimations vary greatly with transport modes.The accessibility of shopping malls presents a concentric ring trend centered on the city center under the car traffic and bicycle modes.And public transit accessibility tends to axially extend due to the topology of bus routes and metro lines.In particular,we observe that the accessibility of shopping malls in Nanjing has an uneven spatial distribution pattern,with high accessibility values in the central urban areas and lots of underserved areas in urban fringe regions.Based on the accessibility measurements,we finally map the poor accessibility area and propose corresponding implications for urban planning.

Using ArcGIS to Study Transportation Accessibility of Cultural Tourism Resources with Wan'an County in Jiangxi Province as an Example

This paper reviews cultural tourist attractions and transportation conditions of Wan'an County in Jiangxi Province,and calculates the accessibility and kernel density of transportation network by using ArcGIS.Through the analysis,it obtains the spatial relationship between the accessibility of Wan an County and the spatial structural characteristics of"one center,two clusters,two verticals and one horizontal"presented by the cultural tourism resources.Based on this,the paper puts forward the transportation development suggestions for the development of cultural tourism for Wan'an County.

China＇s regional transport dominance： Density, proximity, and accessibility

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping the configuration of spatial socio-economic structures and influences regional accessibility. This paper defines transport dominance from three aspects： quafity, quantity, and advantage, measured by density, proximity, and accessibility indices. County is the basic unit for analysis. The results reveal： （1） Transport dominance statistically follows a partial normal distribution. A very few counties, 1.4% of the total, have extremely high transport dominance which strongly supports the socio-economic development in these areas. In contrast, one eighth of all counties have poor transport dominance which impedes local socio-economic development to some extent. The remaining areas, about 70% of the counties, have median transport dominance. （2） Transport dominance is spatially unevenly distributed, with values decreasing gradually from the coastal area to the inland area. Areas in the first-highest level of transport dominance are mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, the Greater Beijing area, and the Pearl River Delta. Areas in the second-highest level are focused in Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wuhan metropolitan areas. Provincial capitals and a few other counties belong to the third-highest level.

Transport Accessibility and Spatial Connections of Cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Based on geographic information system(GIS) spatial analysis technology, the spatial pattern of raster grid transport accessibility for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area was studied and the states of spatial connectedness were simulated using highway passenger transport, railway passenger transport, port passenger transport and aviation passenger transport data. The result shows that transport accessibility within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area costs ‘one hour’ and the spatial distribution of accessibility in the area presents clear ‘core-periphery’ spatial characteristics, with Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen constituting the core. The transport accessibility of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao is high. Average accessibility of urban nodes as measured by travel time is 0.99 h, and the areas accessible within 1.42 h occupy 79.14% of the total area. Most of the areas with the lowest accessibility are found in the peripheral area, with the worst accessibility being 4.73 h. Compared with the west-side cities, the economically developed east-side cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area have higher connectivity with roads, railways, ports, and aviation transport. Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao are closely linked. The higher the accessibility, the closer the intercity connectedness.

Factors Influence Hanoians’ Choice of Non-Motorized Transport Mode to Access Bus Stations

Hanoi’s rapid urbanization has led to a surge in private vehicle ownership, particularly motorcycles, amidst inadequate public transportation infrastructure. Despite government efforts, many still prefer motorized transport, citing mobility and safety concerns, exacerbated by insufficient pedestrian infrastructure. This study examines the motivations behind this reliance on motorized vehicles, particularly motorcycles, in Hanoi. Findings reveal safety and convenience as primary factors driving motorized transport use, especially for accessing bus stations. Economic incentives could promote non-motorized travel and public transport adoption. Policy implications highlight the importance of addressing economic factors and improving access infrastructure to manage motorized vehicle reliance and foster sustainable urban mobility in Hanoi.

Impacts of Nanchang Metro on Accessibility of Public Transport Network and Fairness of Travel for Indemnificatory Housing Residents

Based on the GIS spatial analysis technology,this paper assessed the effects of Nanchang metro in improving the accessibility of public transport networks in different spatial patterns.Besides,from the perspective of transport fairness,this paper evaluated the fairness of allocation of transportation resources for indemnificatory housing residents.Then,it revealed the reasons for the welfare loss of indemnificatory housing residents in fast rail transit resources,so as to provide a reference for promoting the space adaptation of indemnificatory housing residents.The study found that(i)the subway has improved the accessibility of the urban public transport network in terms of travel time and accessibility,but it has a different effect on improving the accessibility of the public transport network.After crossing a certain transit time and distance,there is a weakening trend,showing a pattern of"central expansion-peripheral weakness".(ii)The relative improvement of the metro on the accessibility of public transport for indemnificatory housing residents is lower than the overall improvement efficiency,and the fairness of the redistribution of transportation resources of the indemnificatory housing residents is impaired.(iii)In order to prevent and reduce the problem of space mismatch between indemnificatory housing and rail transit,it can be achieved by planning the metro network according to the spatial characteristics of indemnificatory housing residents’activities,guiding the selection of sites for indemnificatory housing with the TOD model,and forming a mixed community by combining the indemnificatory housing construction with commercial housing,to guarantee fair resource allocation of indemnificatory housing residents.

Accessibility Measures in Modal Choice Models: A Proof of Concept Applied to Freight Transport

Modal choice models applied to interregional or international freight transportation network models are often based on rather coarse origin-destination matrices, containing annual transported tonnages between (sub)regions, for instance. Generally, only basic (sometimes constructed) independent variables (transportation costs or transit times) are used because other variables such as shipment sizes, service frequencies, etc. are not available. Using origin-destination matrices and an assignment model, it is also possible to compute spatial accessibility measures that can further be used as additional explanatory variables. Indeed, several published studies have identified network accessibility as an important element in the mode-choice decision. This paper also shows that the inclusion of an accessibility measure in the utility functions of a logit model substantially improves the performance of a transportation network model, both in the modal choice and the assignment levels of the classical four-step model. Consequently, the assignment of the estimated modal demands results in more accurate estimated traffic on the networks. The model presented in this paper is to be considered as a proof of concept because its workflow should further be streamlined to make it easily useable by modelers.

Accessibility Comparison and Spatial Differentiation of Xi’an Scenic Spots with Different Modes Based on Baidu Real-time Travel

A study of the accessibility of a city’s scenic spots via different travel modes can contribute to optimization of tourism-related transportation while improving tourists’ travel-related satisfaction levels and advancing tourism. We systematically analyzed the accessibility of 56 scenic spots in Xi’an City, China, via car and public transport travel modes using the real-time travel function of the Baidu Maps API(Application Programming Interface) along with spatial analysis methods and the modal accessibility gap index of scenic spots. We obtained the following results. First, maximum and minimum travel times using public transport exceeded those using cars. Moreover, the accessibility of scenic spots via cars and public transport presented a circular spatial pattern of increasing travel time from the center to the periphery. Contrasting with travel by public transport, car travel showed a clear time-space compression effect. Second, accessibility of the scenic spots via cars and public transport showed some spatial heterogeneity, with no clear advantages of car accessibility in the central urban area. However, advantages of car accessibility were increasingly evident moving from the center to the periphery. Third, whereas the correlation of the modal accessibility gap index of scenic spots in Xi’an with global space was significantly positive, local spatial interdependence was only evident in some inner city areas and in marginal areas. Moreover, spatial heterogeneity was evident in two regions but was insignificant in other areas, indicating that the spatial interdependence of the modal accessibility gap index in most scenic spots was not apparent in terms of the overall effect of public transport routes, road networks, and the distribution of scenic spots. The improvement of public transport coverage in marginal areas and the optimization of public transport routes in central urban areas are essential tasks for improving travel using public transport in the future.

Understanding Relationship Between Accessibility and Economic Growth:A Case Study from China(1990–2010)

China′s economy and transport infrastructure have both experienced rapid development since 1978, and especially since 1990. Today, China is the second-largest economic entity in terms of GDP and has the largest high-speed rail(HSR) network and the second-largest expressway network in the world. This paper explores the relationship between accessibility and economic growth in China from 1990 to 2010. In the study, the basic research units include 333 prefecture-level cities and four municipalities. We explore a bivariate analysis framework of accessibility and economic growth, and their increase rates, to examine this relationship using long-term panel data. The results indicate that, first, accessibility and economic growth show a significant positive relationship using both cross-section and panel data, while the increase rate in accessibility and GDP indicate no significant relationship using cross-section data and a poor significant relationship using panel data. Second, the distributions of local advantage are uneven. Cities with low local advantage with respect to accessibility and GDP are mainly located in China′s eastern coastal region or the provincial capitals, while those with low local advantage in terms of their increase rates are located in the western region. Third, as China′s economic growth and transport networks have evolved, the distribution of local advantage shows little change in terms of accessibility and GDP, but a greater change in terms of their increase rates, which is largely influenced by the distribution of expressway and HSR networks.

Urban green spaces accessibility in two European cities:Vilnius(Lithuania)and Coimbra(Portugal)

Urban green spaces(UGS)are essential for human well-being,contributing towards quality of life and promoting social interactions and inclusion.Accessibility to recreational UGS is key to human well-being in urban areas.However,there is a lack of works focused on recreational UGS accessibility in cities from different countries,using different types of transport.In this work,we studied the accessibility to recreational UGS in Vilnius(Lithuania)and Coimbra(Portugal)through four transport modes(foot,bike,bus and car)within 5-and 10-minute distance.The results showed important differences between cities.Vilnius had higher accessibility to recreational UGS than Coimbra in all transport modes.In both cities,the accessibility was highest by car and lowest by bus.Also,the percentage of population covered by 5-and 10-minute distance UGS accessibility in Vilnius is higher than in Coimbra,despite the lower population density in Vilnius.A large number of recreational UGS,their geographic distribution,the dispersed population pattern,and the location of several urbanizations near recreational UGS increased the inhabitant’s accessibility to recreational UGS in Vilnius.The differences in accessibility between cities were mainly attributed to the large number of recreational UGS and higher road network density,cycleways and footways density,and bus lines in Vilnius,compared to Coimbra.This work identified the areas where recreational UGS accessibility is difficult in using different transport modes and need to be improved in study areas.This is essential to support urban planners and increase cities’well-being.The findings of this work will be important for the management of the studied urban areas.

Geostatistical Analysis of Accessibility to Secondary Schools in Parts of Benue State

This research studied accessibility to secondary schools in some parts of Benue State. The objective of the study was to determine the level of accessibility to secondary school. The study adopted survey, field observation and measurement to obtain the needed data. The study adopted gravity model as the related theoretical framework. GIS and descriptive statistical techniques were employed to map, visualize and analyze the data. The result shows that accessibility to secondary school in the three Local Government Areas is generally low, though it varies between schools, within and between Local Government Areas. This depicts a very stressful schooling condition for the majority of students, and has far-reaching implications in terms of lack of skilled manpower, inadequate facilities and consequently low standards in the educational system. To ensure effective and valid decision-making, and maintain high standards in the system, it was recommended that equitable and systematic distribution of school facilities should be embraced. Furthermore, more schools should be established in the areas which currently have low accessibility to bridge the accessibility gap and encourage active participation and consistent attendance at schools among the students.

Use of Open Source Software for the Development of Web GIS for Accessibility to Tourist Attractions

Based on the concepts of social inclusion, universal design and accessibility, this paper aims to describe the stages of the development and implementation of a Web GIS （geographic information system for the internet） based on OS （open source） software The Web GIS developed is called ＂accessibility to Campinas tourist attractions＂, which provides information about cultural and natural attractions in Campinas/SP-Brazil, especially for people with disabilities or reduced mobility that prevents access these sites via public and private transportation. The verification of the existence or lack of accessibility equipment at bus stops and parking areas close to tourist attractions relies on current legislation （NBR 9050/1994） that establishes the right to accessibility for disabled people to transportation, local culture and leisure. An application that facilitates this recognition with low operating costs and high performance was developed using the OS software Quantum GIS 1.0.2, Apache 2.2.4, Mapserver 5.0.2, I3GEO 4.0, PostgreSQL 8.3 and PostGIS 1.3.5. This software is able to integrate the management of tourist areas and the advertisement of tourist information regarding accessibility devices at sights recognized as tourist attractions by Campinas city hall.

Transportation Accessibility of Central Towns in Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Sites in Mountainous Areas and Its Impact on Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Honghe Hani Rice Terraced System, Yunnan

Transportation as a means to support industrial development can impact the economic development of important agricultural heritage sites. Because the central towns in mountainous areas have weak economic interactions with each other, an appropriate method is needed to evaluate their transportation accessibility. This paper takes the Honghe Hani Rice Terraced System(HHRTS) as a study area and develops a model to determine shortest time-distances from central towns in the study area to the nearest high-grade city as a way to evaluate transportation accessibility(TA). We then analyze the relationship between the accessibility of these towns and their economies. The study finds that the TA of the central towns in HHRTS is not good as a whole. More than 70% of the towns are more than 1 hour away from their nearest high-grade city. Of the four counties in the study area, Yuanyang County has the best traffic conditions, while Lvchun County has the worst traffic conditions. The central towns in the northern and middle regions have better TA than those in the west, southwest and east margin regions. The small-scale rural economy has little dependence on the transportation network, while secondary industries are obviously impacted by the transportation network. In the future, to support the integrated development of industries in HHRTS, traffic conditions in each town should be improved appropriately according to the industrial orientation of the town, but excessive investments to construct roads irrespective of eco-environmental impacts and economic benefits should be avoided. Especially in the case of ecologically vulnerable towns, the building high-grade roads should be banned.

Development history and accessibility evolution of land transportation network in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region over the past century

From the development of modern transportation to the current era of high-speed transportation networks, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(BTH) region has always played a national leading role in land transportation development of China. In order to explore the long-term evolutionary characteristics of land transportation in the BTH region, this paper utilized a temporal scale of 100 years to systematically interpret the development process of the land transportation network. Taking 13 cities within the BTH region as research anchor cities, we took into account "leaping" mode of transportation in order to investigate the evolution of accessibility. Our research shows the following results:(1) The land transportation network in the BTH region has undergone five stages of development: the initial period of modernization(1881–1937); the period of stagnation of transportation development(1937–1949); the network expansion period(1949–1980); the period of trunk construction(1980–1995), and the period of high-speed transportation network development(1995–present). The network structure centered around Beijing has existed from the outset of modern transportation development.(2) The accessibility spatial pattern of land transportation in BTH region has evolved from expansion along traffic corridors to the formation of concentric circles. The stratified circular structure of transportation in anchor cities has gradually developed into a contiguous development pattern.(3) There are clear hierarchical differences in the transportation structures of anchor cities. Beijing has always been at the top of this hierarchy, while the hierarchical position of Zhangjiakou has fallen noticeably since 1949. The Beijing-Tianjin region was the first region to form a short-duration transportation circle structure, while the transportation advantages of the central part of Hebei Province, which is located in the center of the BTH transportation region, have yet to be realized.

Estimating walking access area for rail transit station based on discrete choice model

The discrete choice model is used to estimate the walking access area of rail transit stations while considering the influence of existing competition from other traffic modes. The acceptable walking access area is determined according to the willingness of passengers to walk who prefer rail transit compared with bus and automobile. Empirical studies were conducted using the survey data of six stations from the rail transit in Nanjing, China. The results indicate that the rail transit is more preferable compared with bus and private automobile in this case when excluding the influence of individual and environmental factors. It is found that passengers tend to underestimate their willingness to walk. The acceptable walking access area of every rail transit station is different from each other. Suburban stations generally have a larger walking access area than downtown stations. In addition, a better walking environment and a scarcer surrounding traffic environment can also lead to a larger walking area. The model was confirmed to be effective and reasonable according to the model validation. This study can be of benefit to the passenger transportation demand estimation in the location planning and evaluation of rail transit stations.

The City Public Transport Overlooked: Analysis of Effective Distances

Jerusalem is holy to the three main monotheistic religions. Hence Jerusalem is, from a touristic perspective, a world city. Jerusalem is also a highly segmented city. While Jerusalem may seem as an extreme case, it is not unique. Many cities attract large number of tourists to various widely renowned sites within them, in many cases with religious facets. Public transport systems are largely designed to address the demand of local residents. Yet, tourist flows often differ from the travel patterns of local residents, both temporally and spatially. This paper evaluates how Jerusalem’s public transport system serves the global tourist city. To this end, the study focuses on independent tourists, not package-tour tourists. Specifically, we analyze to what extent are the main tourist sites served by the public transportation system. To evaluate accessibility to tourist destinations we use GIS to conduct Least-Cost-Modeling. This methodology measures the effective, rather than the Euclidian distance to tourist destination. We find that the accessibility by public transportation to tourist destinations with high global importance, specifically Christian-religious sites is relatively low. In the final part of the paper we propose a number of explanations for that.

Simulating multiple urban land use changes by integrating transportation accessibility and a vector-based cellular automata:a case study on city of Toronto

The accessibility provided by the transportation system plays an essential role in driving urban growth and urban functional land use changes.Conventional studies on land use simulation usually simplified the accessibility as proximities and adopted the grid-based simulation strategy,leading to the insufficiencies of characterizing spatial geometry of land parcels and simulating subtle land use changes among urban functional types.To overcome these limita-tions,an Accessibility-interacted Vector-based Cellular Automata(A-VCA)model was proposed for the better simulation of realistic land use change among different urban functional types.The accessibility at both local and zonal scales derived from actual travel time data was considered as a key driver of fine-scale urban land use changes and was integrated into the vector-based CA simulation process.The proposed A-VCA model was tested through the simulation of urban land use changes in the City of Toronto,Canada,during 2012-2016.A vector-based CA without considering the driving factor of accessibility(VCA)and a popular grid-based CA model(Future Land Use Simulation,FLUS)were also implemented for compar-isons.The simulation results reveal that the proposed A-VCA model is capable of simulating fine-scale urban land use changes with satisfactory accuracy and good morphological feature(kappa=0.907,figure of merit=0.283,and cumulative producer’s accuracy=72.83%±1.535%).The comparison also shows significant outperformance of the A-VCA model against the VCA and FLUS models,suggesting the effectiveness of the accessibility-interactive mechanism and vector-based simulation strategy.The proposed model provides new tools for a better simula-tion of fine-scale land use changes and can be used in assisting the formulation of urban and transportation planning.

Strategies for Improving Public Transportation Accessibility in Beijing's Urban Regeneration from an Inclusive Perspective: Inspirations from Paris's Experience

As China’s urbanization has transformed from extensive development to "refined operation," urban regeneration is more significant. This paper analyzes changes in research perspectives of urban regeneration in recent years at home and abroad and the innovative concept of inclusive development proposed in the context of globalization, finding that the connotation of urban regeneration in European countries has been gradually enriched in order to promote social integration. Based on this, the paper examines how Paris, the first European city, combined inclusive development and urban regeneration and addressed social integration and equity in urban regeneration by taking accessibility as a key point in solving the most fundamental transportation problems. Based on lessons learned from Paris in developing a barrier-free transportation system, it proposes specific optimization strategies at the micro level in accordance with the status quo of public transportation accessibility in Beijing’s urban regeneration.