Residential segregation, built environment and commuting outcomes: Experience from contemporary China

Abstract

This research is one of the few studies to investigate the mutual impact between residential segregation and the commuting outcomes of minority groups in the context of a developing country. Based on previous empirical studies that acknowledged the interactions between the built environment and travel behavior, we develop a Structural Equation Model to illustrate the multi-directional relationships between residential segregation, the built environment and commute outcomes. With survey data collected from migrant workers in 12 Chinese cities, we apply this model to estimate these complex mutual relationships. Our major findings include: 1) Both residential segregation and the built environment have significant causal impact on migrants' commute distance and duration. Distance from home to downtown has the strongest causal effect on commute outcomes, while residential segregation in urban villages ranks the second. 2) Residential sorting is observed. Commuting distance and duration significantly affects migrants' choice of built environment features. 3) However, commuting outcomes are not a major (or statistically significant) driver of migrant workers’ residential segregation in urban villages. In other words, their choice to reside in urban villages is inelastic to the commuting outcomes of these villages. Other factors such as housing affordability may be more influential. Therefore, demolishing urban villages under “urban renewal” policies will force migrants to relocate to more remote areas with worse job accessibility. These findings have important implications for recently proposed urban renewal policies that are bringing large-scale changes in China. They also offer important insights for other developing countries that are experiencing rapid urbanization. Finally, the framework of this study can be generalized and applied to other countries to examine similar urban issues.