Abstract
Urban space is the spatial projection of various social and economic activities. Given the complexity of urban functions and the ongoing expansion of urban areas, the spatial differentiation of various economic activities within cities tends to become more and more clear; moreover, there tends to be spatial inequalities in resource allocation. Taking Beijing as an example, this study develops a spatial accessibility model at the town (jiedao) level by integrating the spatial distribution of economic activities with the transport system and evaluating the accessibility (at the spatial level) to various economic activities. The equality of the residents’ economic-related travel activity is also evaluated in line with the population distribution. The results show that the accessibility to economic activities generally decreases in going from the urban center to the peripheral suburbs, and this “core to edge” difference is readily apparent. In general, residents tend to choose areas to settle in which have a high degree of accessibility, however, the attractiveness of accessibility is constrained within certain limits, as evidenced by a reduction of population in the center of Beijing. Additionally, there are inequalities with respect to traveling experiences. For instance, 27.8% of residents experience very convenient travel conditions, mostly in the Xicheng, Dongcheng, and Haidian districts, and this equates to a high level of accessibility; about half of the residents in Beijing live in areas ranked as being of medium accessibility and where the distribution of economic activities and transportation facilities are insufficient. Residents living in the outlying Changping, Mentougou, Shunyi, and Fangshan districts have relatively poor access to transportation indicating a low level of accessibility. Overall, the evaluation method for spatial equality considers comprehensively the distribution of economic activities, transportation, and population distribution and can provide a reference framework for optimization of the urban spatial structure to improve urban spatial equality.
Highlights
Taking Beijing as an example, this study develops a spatial accessibility model at the town level by integrating the spatial distribution of economic activities with the transport system and evaluating the accessibility to various economic activities. e equality of the residents’ economic-related travel activity is evaluated in line with the population distribution. e results show that the accessibility to economic activities generally decreases in going from the urban center to the peripheral suburbs, and this “core to edge” difference is readily apparent
Diversification of economic activities is of great significance to land use development and adjustment of the urban spatial structure. erefore, this study has focused on the spatial differences of accessibility based on four types of economic activity. e accessibility model established for a comprehensive selection of economic activities makes up for the deficiencies of previous accessibility evaluations and emphasizes the access opportunities to diverse economic activities for different towns; in effect, this model serves as an important indicator for revealing the equality of the residents’ economic activity-related journeys
Based on the distribution of urban economic activities and the transportation systems, an accessibility model was built to calculate the accessibility of four major economic activities, namely, employment, education, medical care, and shopping and leisure. e model enabled us to analyze the respective spatial distribution accessibility characteristics associated with the four types of economic activity
Summary
“spatial accessibility” of urban economic activities is defined as the convenience of reaching the target economic activity by a certain mode ofRing road District boundary transport starting out from a certain town. “spatial accessibility” of urban economic activities is defined as the convenience of reaching the target economic activity by a certain mode of. Taking employment as an example, the spatial accessibility of town i refers to the convenience of reaching all the employment positions in the city from town i, which represents the location conditions of that town. Ere are two main factors which influence the outcome: one is the distribution of all kinds of economic activity in the city; the other is the transport conditions associated with attaining all these types of economic activity [37]. The routes are characterized by the shortest distance, the minimum time cost, or the economic cost. We can consider comprehensively the time and economic costs associated with the routes, which we call the comprehensive cost
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