Donggen Wang

Housing Preferences in a Transitional Housing System: The Case of Beijing, China

For a prolonged period of time, the Chinese state had monopolised housing provision. Chinese people had virtually no choice of housing. Much has changed with the deepening of the market-oriented reform launched since 1979. A housing market, though not yet a full-fledged one, has been established. People now have greater freedom to choose their homes. More and more people buy houses from the market. There is, therefore, an urgent need for an inquiry into how housing decisions in China are made, what peoples preferences for housing are, and what factors influence their housing choices. To this end, the authors study the joint choice of dwelling and neighbourhood by potential homebuyers in Beijing. Because the housing market in China is still in an embryonic state and highly regulated by the government, one may not be able to get information on actual housing choices to reveal housing preferences. This study thus adopts the stated preference modelling approach. Data were collected in 2001 in Beijing, capital of China. The study shows that, in general, neighbourhood variables are more important than dwelling variables in the choice of housing in Beijing. Associated with this is the importance attached to districts with a good reputation and the concern for dwelling and neighbourhood security.

Well-Being, Context, and Everyday Activities in Space and Time

Against the background of increased interest in subjectively experienced well-being in economics, psychology, and the social sciences, this article analyzes how such well-being is associated with geographical context, social contacts, and life circumstances. The empirical analysis of data collected in Hong Kong is used to elaborate and support two main claims. The first is that geography matters to not only overall well-being but also momentary well-being and that researchers should be careful to specify the influence of geographical context correctly. We therefore employ an approach that is informed by various strands of time–geographical thought and find that life satisfaction is associated more strongly with geographical context than is momentary well-being. Second, we confirm positive relations between social contacts and experienced well-being but extend earlier research by showing that these relations stretch across multiple timescales and depend to some extent on the duration of an activity episode and with whom the activity episode is undertaken. This means that the use of simple indicators of social capital is inadequate for making the complex linkages between well-being and peoples social contacts understandable in empirical research.

Reliable Space–Time Prisms Under Travel Time Uncertainty

Time geography is a powerful framework for analyzing human activities under various space–time constraints. At the core of time geography is the concept of the space–time prism, which delimits an individuals potential activity locations in space and time. The classical space–time prism, however, admits only deterministic travel speeds and ignores the stochastic nature of travel environments. In this article, the classical space–time prism model is extended to congested road networks with travel time uncertainty. A reliable space–time prism is proposed to consider explicitly an individuals on-time arrival probability concerns in the face of travel time uncertainty. The reliable space–time prism is defined as the set of space–time locations where an individual can participate in an activity and return to his or her destination with a given on-time arrival probability. To construct such a reliable space–time prism in a road network, a solution algorithm is developed. A case study using real-world traffic information is carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed prism model. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed prism model can represent well individuals’ space–time taking into account various on-time arrival probability concerns.

A two-level multiple discrete-continuous model of time allocation to virtual and physical activities

This article develops a model to study individuals’ activity choice and time allocation in the physical and virtual spaces. Based on the recent advancement in modeling multiple discrete-continuous choices, this article develops a so-called two-level nested multiple discrete-continuous model. The model and its estimation algorithm are tested by a case study in Hong Kong in which the activity diaries of 330 respondents in the physical and virtual spaces within 24 h were collected. The model can be used to investigate the bi-directional interactions between activities and time use in physical and virtual spaces and their implications for physical travel. It may also be applied to analyse the impacts of social, economical and spatial factors on participation in and time allocation to virtual and physical activities. The model may also be applied to study transportation, marketing and tourism problems involving two-level multiple discrete-continuous choices.

A stated choice approach to developing multi-faceted models of activity behavior

Most existing activity-based models have been developed from revealed preference data. This paper introduces an approach to developing activity-based models from stated preference data. We focus on activity behavior as a multi-facet choice process to decide where and in what sequence to conduct activities, i.e., choice of destination and choice of stop pattern. A design strategy is developed to generate choice experiments that allow the estimation of multi-facet models of activity behavior. The results of an empirical application are reported. The experience and results obtained indicate that the proposed approach does provide a stated preference alternative to the revealed preference approach in developing multi-facet models of activity behavior.

Pairwise conjoint analysis of activity engagement choice

Information overload is a well-known problem of conjoint choice models when respondents have to evaluate a large number of attributes and/or attribute levels. In this paper we develop an alternative conjoint modelling approach, called pairwise conjoint analysis. It differs from conventional conjoint choice and preference models in that the attributes of choice alternatives or choice contexts are not varied simultaneously, but in pairs. Properties of the design strategy are discussed. The new approach is illustrated by using activity engagement choice as an example.

Contributions of the Usage and Affective Experience of the Residential Environment to Residential Satisfaction

The existing literature has documented that housing conditions, neighborhood characteristics, and socioeconomics are important determinants of residential satisfaction. However, the contribution of the actual usage of the residential environment to residential satisfaction has rarely been studied. To help fill in this gap, this study examines the contribution of the usage of housing and neighborhoods as well as the affective residential experience to residential satisfaction. We apply a subjective well-being framework and consider residential satisfaction and residential affective experience as two constituent components of the residential domain subjective well-being. Data were collected in Beijing from November 2011 to June 2012. The results show that home and neighborhood activities significantly affect residential satisfaction; higher levels of valence and activation of daily activities at home and in the neighborhood lead to more residential satisfaction.

Measuring place-based accessibility under travel time uncertainty

ABSTRACT Travel time uncertainty has significant impacts on individual activity-travel scheduling, but at present these impacts have not been considered in most accessibility studies. In this paper, an accessibility evaluation framework is proposed for urban areas with uncertain travel times. A reliable space-time service region (RSTR) model is introduced to represent the space-time service region of a facility under travel time uncertainty. Based on the RSTR model, four reliable place-based accessibility measures are proposed to evaluate accessibility to urban services by incorporating the effects of travel time reliability. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework, a case study using large-scale taxi tracking data is carried out. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed accessibility measures can evaluate large-scale place-based accessibility well in urban areas with uncertain travel times. Conventional place-based accessibility indicators ignoring travel time reliability can significantly overestimate the accessibility to urban services.

Residential Mobility in a Changing Housing System: Guangzhou, China, 1980-2001

Based on retrospective life histories derived from a sample of 1,500 households, the present study estimates the changing rate of residential mobility in Guangzhou, China, during the period 1980-2001. The estimated mobility rate shows a rapidly rising trend and this increase remains pronounced after taking into account the cohort effect inherent in retrospective histories. Marketization of the housing provision system has brought about increased residential changes. Discrete-time logit analysis shows that elements of the socialist redistributive economy, particularly the work-unit system, remains important in structuring residential change under market transition. More specifically, education and membership in the Chinese Communist Party enhance mobility. Almost invariably, change in employment is associated with a move. Whereas owning an apartment purchased from the work unit is associated with substantially lower mobility than are other ownership categories, renting from the work unit is associated with higher mobility than are other rent categories. However, as the case in the West, heightened residential mobility in Guangzhou is also a demographically-driven process. Change in marital status likely triggers residential change. Age exhibits the usual curvilinear effects, and gender is an important differentiator of residential mobility.

Mobility, Sociability and Well-being of Urban Living

This chapter discusses how travel by different travel modes is related to primarily subjective well-being but also to health or physical well-being. Studies carried out in different geographic contexts consistently show that satisfaction with active travel modes is higher than travel by car and public transport, and that satisfaction with travel is lowest for different forms of public transport. These differences are shown to be explained by a variety of factors, which stem from fundamental differences between the travel modes in terms of the intensity of physical activity, mental involvement in the act of travel itself, exposure to and interaction with the vehicle and the wider travel surroundings, and the degree of control over travel circumstances. Taken together, the overview suggests that active modes are an attractive alternative to car travel. Public transport can be a good alternative to car travel, if requirements of seat availability, accessibility, safety, and cleanliness are met. Regarding the shift from one travel mode to another, some evidence indicates that most car commuters, when switching to public transport, experience lower satisfaction with travel by car. Yet, those who experience public transport more positive than car are likely to keep using it. Other evidence suggests, however, that car commuters’ experience of public transport is better than they anticipate, but that they tend to “forget” this after some time. Switchers from car to active travel on average report higher levels of subjective well-being after the switch. Policies aimed at promoting the use of more sustainable modes should recognize that heterogeneity exists between travelers, and aim at targeting those with positive attitudes toward changing to active modes and public transport. Future research should address the dynamics in experienced travel satisfaction and mode choice.