Does Urban Rail Transit Discourage People from Owning and Using Cars? Evidence from Beijing, China

Shasha Liu,Toshiyuki Yamamoto,Enjian Yao

doi:10.1155/2018/1835241

Shasha Liu, Toshiyuki Yamamoto + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1835241

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Abstract

With the rapid urbanization and motorization, many cities are developing urban rail transit (URT) to reduce car dependence. This paper explores the URT effect on car ownership and use based on the home-based work tour data in Beijing, China. Considering the mediating effects of car ownership and travel distance simultaneously, we develop a structural equation model to examine the complex relationship among URT, car ownership, travel distance, and car use. The results indicate that URT plays an important role in reducing car dependence. Living within URT catchment areas by itself is not significantly associated with car ownership and use, but if the workplace is near a URT station, people are less likely to own and use cars. People who both live and work near URT station areas have lower probability of owning and using cars. Moreover, car ownership and travel distance mediate the relationship between URT and car use, and the mediating effect of car ownership is greater than travel distance. Our study verifies that URT does discourage people from owning and using cars, which may have important implications for developing cities to make response to the ongoing motorization.

Highlights

Increasing car travel demand has resulted in numerous problems, such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution, road accidents, and global warming [1, 2]
Living within urban rail transit (URT) catchment areas by itself has no significant effect on car use, but if the workplace is near a URT station, people have lower probability of using cars
If we only focus on the direct effects of URT, we may get a misspecification of URT effects on car use

Summary

Introduction

Increasing car travel demand has resulted in numerous problems, such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution, road accidents, and global warming [1, 2]. In an attempt to get people out of their cars and address the above problems, great importance has been attached to urban rail transit (URT) [3, 4]. Many cities have invested heavily on URT systems, especially in fast-growing developing countries [5]. In India, metro is operational in 10 cities, under construction in 5 cities, and planned in 17 cities [6]. For these cities that are experiencing fast-paced urbanization, if empirical studies verify the importance of URT in reducing car dependence, this would provide great potential to intervene the development of urbanization [7] and make effective response to the continuing motorization

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