Jiaoe Wang

Spatial access to residential care resources in Beijing, China

BackgroundAs the population is ageing rapidly in Beijing, the residential care sector is in a fast expansion process with the support of the municipal government. Understanding spatial accessibility to residential care resources by older people supports the need for rational allocation of care resources in future planning.MethodsBased on population data and data on residential care resources, this study uses two Geographic Information System (GIS) based methods – shortest path analysis and a two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method to analyse spatial accessibility to residential care resources.ResultsSpatial accessibility varies as the methods and considered factors change. When only time distance is considered, residential care resources are more accessible in the central city than in suburban and exurban areas. If care resources are considered in addition to time distance, spatial accessibility is relatively poor in the central city compared to the northeast to southeast side of the suburban and exurban areas. The resources in the northwest to southwest side of the city are the least accessible, even though several hotspots of residential care resources are located in these areas.ConclusionsFor policy making, it may require combining various methods for a comprehensive analysis. The methods used in this study provide tools for identifying underserved areas in order to improve equity in access to and efficiency in allocation of residential care resources in future planning.

Transportation Development Transition in China

Scientific development is an invaluable asset to a country. Policies and development modes should be carried out based on scientific findings not only in industry, but also in transportation infrastructure construction. Building an integrated transportation system, which is in line with the national requirements of China and supports sustainable socio-economic development, is a key strategic issue related to building a moderately prosperous society and achieving realistic goals of a medium-level developed country. Based on a systematic review of the advances in China’s transportation infrastructure over the last 60 years, this paper explores the main drivers of transportation development, including national policy, transportation structure, investment efficiency, and technological innovation. Analysis shows that China’s comprehensive transportation infrastructure construction since 1949 can be divided into five stages initiated by these drivers, which correspond to four transition modes: policy transition, structural transition, efficiency transition, and technology transition. The transition path of China’s transportation development shows that the dominant factors have changed, and the interval for each transition has shortened. With the implementation of the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’, China’s transportation infrastructure construction is showing some new characteristics and facing a new development transition. Finally, this paper analyzes the trends in transportation development in China and concludes that technological innovation will be the main driving force to increase the transportation supply and service area in the future.

Competition of spatial service hinterlands between high-speed rail and air transport in China: Present and future trends

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport in China has encouraged research on the spatial effects and safety of these two modes of transport, and on the competition between them. We report here an investigation of the effects of competition between HSR and air transport in China from a geographical perspective. The spatial service hinterlands for HSR and air transport accessible within one and two hours by road transport were investigated using a method based on a geographical information system and the overlapping service hinterlands of HSR and air transport were established. A city with both HSR stations and airports, or that was accessible to HSR stations and airports within a certain travel time by road transport, was defined as the overlapping market. The spatial effects of competition between HSR and air transport at present and in the future were then studied with respect to the planned HSR network and airports. The results showed that both HSR and air transport tend to serve areas with high population densities and well-developed economies and in 2012 most of the population and GDP in China were accessible within two hours by road transport to an HSR station or airport. The different technical and economic characteristics of HSR and air transport determine the advantage markets. Spatially, the service hinterland of HSR mainly focuses on urban agglomerations and economic corridors in the eastern and central regions, whereas air transport has a competitive advantage in the more inaccessible western region of China. The overlapping market of HSR and air transport will become increasingly large in the future and cities with a population of over one million and cities within 30 km to both airports and HSR stations will become the major competitive markets. Considering the cost of construction and the number of passengers required for economic operation, as well as the competition with air transport, it is suggested that the construction of some HSR projects in the western region of China should be canceled or slowed down.

Evolution of regional transport dominance in China 1910-2012

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping the configuration of spatial socio-economic structures and influencing regional accessibility. Although China’s transport infrastructure has been experiencing a rapid development in the last 100 years, there lacks a systematic examination of the complete evolution history of China’s transport development, particularly with all kinds of transport modes. This paper first aims to clarify the history of China’s transportation from 1910 to 2012, and divides its evolution process into five periods (1911, 1935, 1953, 1981 and 2012) whereby each period represents the preliminary development time for each transport mode. Second, the paper calculates the transport dominance and analyses its spatial distribution in each period, with county as the basic analysis unit. Transport dominance here is defined as an integrated indicator for evaluating regional transport conditions. The results demonstrate the following: (1) areas with relative good transport dominance have expanded from scattered dots such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou in 1911 to extensive areas with each provincial city as cores in 2012; (2) transport development is improved by advances in transportation technology. The construction of modern transport infrastructures such as seaports, airports, high-speed rails (HSRs), and freeways lead the expansion of national territorial areas with good and excellent transport dominance and the increase of the value of transport dominance over time; (3) transport dominance is spatially unevenly distributed and exhibits resemblance with the expansion of transport network, which is closely related to China’s socio-economic development and policies.

Progress of research on transportation geography in China

As an important branch of human geography, transportation geography has experienced three periods of evolution: foundation, systematization, and rapid development of the discipline. It has gradually become a relatively mature discipline. During the period 1930–1980, the development of transportation geography consisted mainly of the publication of theoretical texts. During 1980–2000, it gradually became a systematic discipline. Since the start of the 21st century, transportation geography has focused mainly on exploring the impacts of transportation on socio-economic development. Currently, studies on transportation geography have led to significant developments in a number of areas, including transportation theory, facility distribution and planning, transportation flows and network analysis, evaluation of transport modes, transportation planning, and simulation and assessment of urban transportation. Such studies have also enriched human geography research, provided a wider geographical overview and elucidated the development mechanism of transportation, as well as helped to understand the impacts of transport development on socio-economic systems. Some findings obtained by geographers have been widely used in transportation geography and related fields, including the four basic laws of transportation generation, the hub–spoke mode of transport organization, the subordinating and guiding functions of transportation on socio-economic development, regional transport dominance measures, accessibility measures, and spatial organization of port systems.

Analysis of transportation carbon emissions and its potential for reduction in China

The transportation industry is an essential sector for carbon emissions mitigation. This paper firstly used the LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) decomposition method to establish factors decomposition model on Chinas transportation carbon emission. Then, a quantitative analysis was performed to study the factors influencing Chinas transportation carbon emissions from 1991 to 2008, which are identified as transportation energy efficiency, transportation structure and transportation development. The results showed that: (1) The impact of transportation development on transportation carbon emissions showed pulling function. Its contribution value to carbon emissions remained at high growth since 1991 and showed an exponential growth trend. (2) The impact of transportation structure on transportation carbon emissions showed promoting function in general, but its role in promoting carbon emissions decreased year by year. And with the continuous optimization of transportation structure, the promoting effect decreased gradually and showed the inversed “U” trend. (3) The impact of transportation energy efficiency on transportation carbon emissions showed a function of inhibition before pulling. In order to predict the potential of carbon emission reduction, three scenarios were set. Analysis of the scenarios showed that if greater intensity emission reduction measures are taken, the carbon emissions will reduce by 31.01 million tons by 2015 and by 48.81 million tons by 2020.

Comparing passenger flow and time schedule data to analyse High-Speed Railways and urban networks in China:

China’s High-Speed Railways (HSR) network is the biggest in the world, transporting large numbers of passengers by high-speed trains through urban networks. Little is known about the analytical meaning of the use of two types of flow data, namely, time schedule (transportation mode flow) and passenger flow data, to characterise the configuration of urban networks regarding the potential spatial effects of HSR networks on urban networks. In this article, we compare HSR passenger flow data with time schedule data from 2013 in China within the same analytical framework. The findings show great differences in the strength of cities and links generated using the two different types of flow data. These differences can be explained largely by the socio-economic attributes of the cities involved, such as tertiary employment, GDP per capita, the cities’ topological properties (closeness centrality) in HSR networks and institutional factors (hub status), especially for the difference in link strength. The strength of first-tier cities in China with high socio-economic performance and the HSR links connecting core cites and major cities within respective regions tends to be underestimated when using time schedule flows compared with passenger flows. When analysing the spatial structure of HSR and urban networks by means of flows, it is important for urban geographers and transportation planners to consider the meaning of the different types of data with the analytical results.

An organizational model and border port hinterlands for the China-Europe Railway Express

Facilities connectivity is a priority area for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The “China-Europe Railway Express” (CER Express) mode of transport organization links China with Europe by fast-track cargo rail. A major instance of facilities connectivity related to this project is an important practical and symbolic instance of BRI transport cooperation. The strategic significance of the CER Express and a number of operational issues are outlined, as are the implications of limited market potential for costs and competitiveness. A “hub-and-spoke” organizational model that can generate scale economies and reduce costs is proposed. To examine the establishment of an organizational model of this kind, the economic hinterlands of Alashankou, Erenhot, and Manzhouli are identified under high-, mediumand low-cost scenarios using an analytical methodology that determines distance and economic costs, and a number of transport hubs (that include Harbin, Zhengzhou, and Lanzhou) are identified. The results found that the cost of the routes from 314 Chinese cities to Moscow is the lowest via Manzhouli in the high- and medium-cost scenarios, but the routes change via Erenhot in the low-cost scenario. A number of policy recommendations should follow up.

The implications of high-speed railways on air passenger flows in China

Abstract The High-speed Railway (HSR) network in China is the largest in the world, competing intensively with airlines for inter-city travel. Panel data from 2007 to 2013 for 138 routes with HSR-air competition were used to identify the ex-post impacts of the entry of HSR services, the duration of operating HSR services since entry, and the specific impacts of HSR transportation variables such as travel time, frequency, and ticket fares on air passenger flows in China. The findings show that the entry of new HSR services in general leads to a 27% reduction in air travel demand. After two years of operating HSR services, however, the negative impact of HSR services on air passenger flows tends to further increase. The variations of the frequency in the temporal dimension and the travel time in the spatial dimension significantly affect air passenger flows. Neither in the temporal nor spatial dimensions are HSR fares strongly related to air passenger flows in China, due to the government regulation of HSR ticket prices during the period of analysis. The impacts of different transportation variables found in this paper are valuable to consider by operational HSR companies in terms of scheduling and planning of new routes to increase their competitiveness relative to airlines.