Jianqiang Cui

Planning for Urban Freight Transport: An Overview

Abstract Urban freight transport is essential to the functioning of cities, but is also an activity that affects the urban environment and communities. Yet, freight is often overlooked in discussions of urban transport, in contrast to passenger modes. Much freight research emphasises questions of operations and network management but is less attentive to the links between freight transport and urban development. New efforts are needed to improve understanding of the link between urban freight and cities. This paper presents a broad discussion of the links between urban freight transport and urban planning through an overview of the literature in the field. The paper discusses key problems confronting planning and policies for urban freight transport in relation to its importance, impacts, interrelationship between stakeholders, institutions, influencing factors and challenges. The paper proposes a revitalised agenda for planning for urban freight and identifies key directions for further research, particularly around the land-use, environmental and institutional dimensions of urban freight management. By identifying major underdeveloped areas of urban freight research, the paper offers guidance as to key issues that will need to be addressed as freight grows as a proportion of the urban transport task.

The impacts of urban spatial structure and socio-economic factors on patterns of commuting: a review

Previous studies have reported that urban spatial structure and the spatial relationship between jobs and housing are strongly correlated with commuting patterns. Nevertheless, a number of studies have also supported the concept that the spatial relationship between workplaces and residences cannot be the only reason behind observed commuting behaviour. Some ‘soft’ factors also affect peoples commuting patterns. When considering these ‘soft’ factors, urban land development patterns such as urban structure and the spatial relationship between jobs and housing must not be overlooked. In this paper, we first conduct a brief review of the debate about how urban spatial structure and the jobs–housing relationship affect commuting patterns. Then we mainly focus on the ‘soft’ factors related to commuting behaviour. We divided the ‘soft factors’ into city-level factors and individual- and household-level factors. These perspectives will offer insights to identify a set of key factors that could affect the patterns of commuting.

Travel behaviour and mobility needs of older adults in an ageing and car-dependent society

ABSTRACT An ageing population poses long-term challenges for a nation’s health, labour force market, housing and transport, affecting economic growth, living standards and government finances. With increasingly rapid ageing in both developed and developing countries, how to develop future transport frameworks, taking into account the increasingly large ageing population and their travel needs, has been emerging as a major challenge in urban policy development. This review explores how demographic changes in an ageing society and the associated travel patterns of a changing older cohort may impact on future transport demand by providing evidence on the travel behaviour of older adults, its associated influencing factors and the possible alternatives to car transport for older adults. It concludes by discussing major policy areas for addressing the elderly’s mobility needs via the provision of future transport infrastructure and services, implementing legislative and institutional approaches, and building accessible mobility environments. The paper also identifies key directions for further research.

Sub-centres, socio-economic characteristics and commuting: a case study and its implications

ABSTRACT Institutional and economic reforms in China have not only delivered major improvements in people’s living standards but also changed the spatial structure of Chinese cities. In addition, substantially increased commuting times have become a serious problem influencing quality of life in the mega-cities of China. Accordingly, research into the dynamics of urban restructuring in rapidly growing Chinese cities and the impacts on workers’ commuting patterns would provide important evidence in this research field. The results of this case study suggest that polycentric urban development has a significant influence on employees’ commuting times. Promoting local jobs-housing balance in sub-centres would shorten commuting times for workers. The findings also suggest that the locations and types of employment centres are significantly associated with individuals’ choice of housing and workplace locations, and accordingly their commuting behaviour. The effects of decentralization of employment on workers’ commuting times differ depending on the extent of suburbanization of different economic sectors. The findings in this research also suggest that workers’ commuting behaviour is related to individual socio-economic characteristics, such as income and education.

The Influence of Jobs–Housing Balance and Socio-economic Characteristics on Commuting in a Polycentric City New Evidence from China

Substantial increases in commuting times have become a serious problem affecting the quality of life in Chinese megacities. Accordingly, research into the dynamics of urban spatial restructuring and socio-economic transition in rapidly growing Chinese cities and the impacts on workers’ travel behaviour can provide important evidence in this research field. Using data from a recent survey of employees at their workplaces in sub-centres of Beijing, a multiple linear regression analysis was employed to measure the effect of certain variables on workers’ commuting time, by identifying relationships between the various independent variables (local jobs–housing spatial relationships, individual socio-economic characteristics and choice of transport mode) and the dependent variable (workers’ commuting times). The results of the regression analysis show that jobs–housing balance has a more significant impact on workers’ commuting times than socio-economic characteristics. The results also suggest that workers’ commuting behaviour is strongly related to socio-economic characteristics such as income, age, gender and education, as well as institutional factors such as economic and land-use reforms.

Fuel price changes and their impacts on urban transport – a literature review using bibliometric and content analysis techniques, 1972–2017

ABSTRACT While the period of heightened oil prices in 2005–2014 has attracted considerable academic and policy attention, there is scant cross-disciplinary research considering energy price, transport and land use together. In car dependent societies many socio-economically disadvantaged areas often lack public and active transport accessibility. Emerging research focus has been placed on issues of transport equity including effects of fuel prices. We reviewed 45 years (1972–2017) of publications about fuel price impacts, transport, and urban context, drawn from Web of Science listed publications. Bibliographic citation analysis reveals eight major research clusters with a set of inter-city comparative studies at their centre. The historical evolution, geographical trends, research approaches and the key themes are revealed by context analysis. The paper highlights the need for further studies looking at energy, transport and land use interaction, and suggests a greater focus on transport equity.