Beyond half-mile circle: Measuring the impact of subway expansion on home-based travels in Beijing, China

Abstract

Subways play an important role in supporting travel needs, yet whether the benefits of subway expansion can justify the substantial investments remains a much-debated question. Existing studies have arbitrarily defined the catchment area of a subway station using walking distance and have disproportionately focused on commuting trips, potentially underestimating broader subway effects. To address these limitations, this study employed the distance-band approach to accurately define the treatment area of subway stations while incorporating both local and network effects. Based on longitudinal mobile signaling data, we used the difference-in-differences approach to estimate the average treatment effects of 32 new subway stations on different types of home-based travels in Beijing, China. We found that the opening of new subway stations has led to significant increases in subway usage, trip duration, and trip distance within a 2000-metre radius, and that commuting trips have been more affected than home-based non-commuting trips, except during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the new subway stations also enhanced the connectivity of the city-wide network, influencing the travel behavior of residents in the vicinity of existing subway stations. We further found that subway expansion is particularly beneficial for women, younger residents, and residents of low-rent neighborhoods. According to these findings, planning new subway stations in Beijing and other densely populated megacities requires an integrated approach that considers the relationships between the existing transport network and diverse travel demand.