Using Open Source Data to Identify Transit Deserts in Four Major Chinese Cities.

Mingming Cai,Junfeng Jiao

doi:10.3390/ijgi9020100

Abstract

The concept of transit deserts stems from the concept of food deserts. There is substantial research on transit deserts in developed countries. However, there is no known research that has studied this subject in Chinese cities. Using open-source data, this paper identified transit desert areas in four major Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu). The results show that: (1) In these four cities, the transit desert areas are mainly concentrated in city centers and hardly occur in any suburban areas, which is very different from the cases in the US. (2) Shanghai has the largest transit-dependent population living in transit deserts, followed by Beijing, Chengdu, and Wuhan. Chengdu has the smallest transit desert areas, followed by Shanghai, Wuhan, and Beijing. (3) An oversized transit-dependent population and incomplete transit systems in these cities might contribute to the transit deserts' occurrences. (4) Different distribution of population density, traveling preference, and transportation investment policy in Chinese and American cities might contribute to the different findings. By examining transit desert problems in major Chinese cities, this study brought people's attention to the gap between transit demand and supply in China.

Highlights

The concept of “transit deserts” originates from the popular and thoroughly studied concept, “food deserts,” which refers to those areas lacking enough access to fresh and nutritious food for residents [1,2]
This paper demonstrates a quantitative method to identify transit demand, transit supply, and transit gaps in four major Chinese cities
The results show that transit deserts in Chinese cities are mainly concentrated in the city center, which is very different from cases in American cities where transit deserts are scattered in isolated suburbs

Summary

Introduction

The concept of “transit deserts” originates from the popular and thoroughly studied concept, “food deserts,” which refers to those areas lacking enough access to fresh and nutritious food for residents [1,2]. A transit desert is defined as an area that is not equipped with enough transit services to meet residents’ travel demands [3] It reveals that the level of transportation accessibility in this area is low, caused by deficiencies in transport infrastructure and connecting services, or the transit-dependent population is overcrowded [4]. It will take people a far longer time to travel through than the other areas. The second is transit supply, which shows the conditions of transit services spatially connecting different areas and carrying human mobility in the area It is measured from three aspects: transit stops, transit routes, and road networks. The areas with high transit gaps, where transit demands are far beyond transit supplies, are identified as transit deserts

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion