Does built environment improvement promote transport equity for internal migrants in Beijing?

Abstract

Numerous studies and practices leverage improvements in the built environment to encourage green transportation due to its significant potential to shape travel behaviors. Yet, the equity impacts of these improvements on vulnerable populations remain underexplored. This study seeks to address the question: whether built environment improvement strategies advance transport equity? Using a travel survey from Beijing and combining the Capability Approach with the Random Parameter Logit model, we develop a multilevel discrete choice model to estimate capability changes for four hypothetical scenarios of built environment improvement and conduct transportation equity analysis using Maximax principle. Our results show that increasing the mix of land use is prioritized to enhance commuting equity for carless internal migrants. Expanding bus route coverage is recommended to alleviate commuting inequality for low-income internal migrants. However, increasing road density or decreasing the distance to the nearest metro station may not effectively mitigate commuting inequities for disadvantaged internal migrants.