Travel Behavior of New Town Residents: A Case Study of Fangshan in Beijing

Abstract

With rapid economic development and population growth in urban areas, cities are sprawling quickly. The development of satellite cities and new towns has become an important factor in the further growth of cities. In 2004 Beijing initiated a master plan revision and planned 11 new towns in the city’s suburban area. Five years after the implementation of the urban Master plan, the process of urban and transport development has provided important references for other cities’ new town constructions. Based on the comprehensive travel survey data obtained in 2005 and 2010, this paper studies new town citizens’ travel behavior changes over the past five years. Trip rates, trip distribution, travel purpose and mode choice by purpose are presented in details. From the travel behavior changes, we find some challenges in the development of new towns. Firstly, the job-house imbalance results in more cross-district trips between central cities and new towns. Another challenge derives from a non-user-friendly built environment which caused a sharp drop in the usage of bicycle. Finally, recommendations are presented for new town development.