The intermediary effect of intelligent Amap-related traffic efficiency on haze pollution

Abstract

To determine the effect of intelligent traffic system (ITS) Amap on environmental benefits, this research employs the innovative approaches including the entropy-weighted method, super-efficiency slacks-based measure and spatial intermediary model to measure the ITS Amap-related traffic efficiency and its intermediary effect on environmental benefits using data from 17 key Chinese cities. Overall, the research finds that traffic congestion in China has mitigated between 2014 and 2020 due to the ITS Amap system, transportation infrastructure and traffic regulation policies. However, the overall Amap-related traffic efficiency has increased but remains within the ineffective range. Furthermore, the ITS Amap-related traffic efficiency has significant intermediary role on haze pollution mitigation for all cities. And traffic efficiency has positive spatial spillover on haze pollution mitigation in its neighboring cities. Specifically, the ITS Amap-related traffic efficiency is higher and more stable in both the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei cities. The greatest intermediary alleviation effect on haze pollution is observed in the Yangtze River Delta cities, while the weakest effect is observed in the Chengdu–Chongqing inland cities.