Residential segregation and commuting patterns of migrant workers in China

In China, many rural migrant workers experience residential segregation and live in urbanizing villages, due to China’s unique institutional context (e.g. land tenure system, hukou system) as well as exclusionary housing regulations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether these urbanizing villages provide good job accessibility for rural migrant workers. We explore this problem by investigating the commuting patterns of migrant workers. Through a survey conducted in 2009 across four mega-regions in China that are currently experiencing rapid urbanization, we collected individual level information on rural migrant workers’ commute distances and durations, demographics, household socioeconomic status, and whether the migrant worker is living in an urbanizing village or not. From residential address information collected in the survey, we constructed a group of built environment variables. Using IV Tobit models to address the endogeneity issues associated with residential location choice, our analyses show that these urbanizing villages actually provide relatively good accessibility to job opportunities. This result is different from what is suggested by the spatial mismatch literature based on U.S. data. This research helps to fill the gap in the literature on the relationship between residential segregation, built environment and travel behavior in the Chinese context. The findings have implications for policymaking, especially when many government officials are proposing to demolish urbanizing villages without fully realizing the benefits of these villages. This research could also provide useful information for other developing countries facing residential segregation of migrants or immigrants.     

Vehicle kilometers traveled reduction impacts of Transit-Oriented Development: Evidence from Shanghai City

The role of residential self-selection has become a major subject in the debate over the relationships between the built environment and travel behavior. Numerous previous empirical studies on this subject have provided valuable insights into the associations between the built environment and travel behavior. However, the vast majority of the studies were conducted in North American and European cities; yet this research is still in its infancy in most developing countries, including China, where residential and transport choices are likely to be more constrained and travel-related attitudes quite different from those in the developed world. Using the data collected from 2038 residents currently living in TOD neighborhoods and non-TOD neighborhoods in Shanghai City, this paper aims to partly fill the gaps by investigating the causal relationship between the built environment and travel behavior in the Chinese context. More specifically, this paper employs Heckman’s sample selection model to examine the reduction impacts of TOD on personal vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT), controlling for self-selection. The results show that whilst the effects of residential self-selection are apparent; the built environment exhibits the most significant impacts on travel behavior, playing the dominant role. These findings produce a sound basis for local policymakers to better understand the nature and magnitude toward the impacts of the built environment on travel behavior. Providing the government department with reassurance that effective interventions and policies on land use aimed toward altering the built environment would actually lead to meaningful changes in travel behavior.     

Impact of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems on residential location choice

The impacts of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) on urban development patterns were investigated in terms of households' residential location choice decisions. A discrete choice modelling approach framework was used. A stated preference (SP) logit analysis was carried out to estimate the parameters of the utility function. An attitude survey of employees of selected public and private sector organizations in the Ottawa-Carleton Region (Canada) yielded the required data for model estimation. In addition to obtaining background information, the survey elicited SP responses by presenting a number of hypothetical residential choice scenarios defined according to the principles of SP experimental design. Results show that telecommuting and ITS measures are highly significant factors in the residential choice model. This leads to the conclusion that these reinforce dispersed residential patterns and encourage moves towards outlying sites. Implications of this conclusion for urban land development planning are noted.     

The role of paratransit: some reflections based on the experience of residents’ coach services in Hong Kong

Paratransit refers to urban transport services “somewhere between private passenger transport and conventional public transport in terms of cost and quality of service” [Rimmer (1980), Paratransit: A commentary. Environ. Plan. A 12, 937–944]. Since the 1980s, a new form of paratransit—residents’ coach, which provides exclusive transport services to residents living in private housing estates—has emerged in Hong Kong. What was the background underlying the emergence and subsequent growth of residents’ coach services? Also, what was the role of residents’ coach in the public transport system of Hong Kong? With the completion of more railway extensions, should residents’ coach services be replaced? If so, what are the potential impacts on people’s life? This paper addresses the above research questions through a large-scale questionnaire survey that examined not only people’s modal choice but also their residential choice, socio-economic background and attitudes. The findings suggest that transport policy makers should pay more attention to examine new forms of paratransit and the ways of integrating them into the overall public transport system, both spatially and temporally. It is only through the development of an efficient and multi-modal transport system can the maximum potential of paratransit in filling the transport gap between conventional mass transit and private cars be realized.     

Residential built environment and walking activity: Empirical evidence of Jane Jacobs’ urban vitality

This study intends to empirically verify Jacobs’ urban vitality theory, which was based on the observations of her New York City neighborhood in the mid-20th century. To examine the relationship between the residential built environment and walking activity, we used telephone survey data consisting of 1823 valid samples from across Seoul, a city characterized by a high population density and a well-established public transportation system. Respondents were asked questions about their residential location, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and their walking activities. This study then used geographic information systems to measure objective indicators of built environment variables within 500-meter buffer areas based on the home addresses of the respondents. Then, this study constructed multilevel regression models with walking activity as the dependent variable. Our results indicated that walking activity is associated with Jacobs’ six conditions for urban vitality, including land use mix, density, block size, building age, accessibility, and border vacuums.     

Rebound effects caused by the improvement of vehicle energy efficiency: An analysis based on a SP-off-RP survey

This study provide a straightforward way of examining the rebound effects of switching to more fuel efficient technologies, as well as determining the distribution of the effects in the household sector, including both the residential and transport sectors. A SP-off-RP survey conducted in Japan in 2012 asked people to state their preference for the reallocation behaviors after informing them of their annual operating cost saving resulting from the vehicle efficiency improvement. Coupled who save money from relocation are more likely to spend this either on housing features or transport; supporting the idea of rebound effects, although not only limited to within the transport sector. Regarding the distribution of rebound effects, domestic appliances are more likely to be affected than vehicles.     

Understanding neighbourhood design impact on travel behaviour: An application of structural equations model to a British metropolitan data

The objective of this study is to explore whether changes in neighbourhood characteristics bring about changes in travel choice. Residential self-selection is a concern in the connections between land-use and travel behaviour. The recent literature suggests that a longitudinal structural equations modelling (SEM) approach can be a powerful tool to assess the importance of neighbourhood characteristics on travel behaviour as opposed to the attitude-induced residential self-selection. However, the evidence to date is limited to particular geographical areas and evidence from one country might not be transferrable to another because of differences in land-use patterns and land-use policies. The paper is to address the gap by extending the evidence using British data. The case study is based on the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear, North East of England, UK. A SEM is applied to 219 respondents who reported residential relocation. The results identify that neighbourhood characteristics do influence travel behaviour after controlling for self-selection. For instance, the more people are exposed to public transport access, the more likely they drive less. Neighbourhood characteristics also impact through their influence on car ownership. A social environment with vitality also reduces the amount of private car travel. These findings suggest that land-use policies at neighbourhood level can play an important role in reducing driving.     

The role of residential self-selection in land use-travel research: a review of recent findings

ABSTRACT

Residential self-selection (RSS) is an important concern in the land use-travel research. Although many studies have addressed RSS during the past two decades, empirical results are inconsistent in terms of the existence, magnitude, and direction of self-selection bias. Moreover, recent studies substantiated other plausible associations within the theoretical framework of RSS, such as the endogeneity of travel attitudes. These further complicate the role of RSS in the land use-travel relationship. To improve understanding, this paper summarises recent progress in the RSS research, especially the studies published in the last decade. Specifically, we review three types of influences among the built environment, attitudes, and travel behaviour, and discuss unsolved problems within each type. We also discuss measurement issues of the built environment and attitudes in the RSS research. Because attitudes could be confounders, moderators, and mediators of the link between the built environment and travel behaviour, we recommend panel data with at least three waves of household travel surveys to address the complicated influences of attitudes. Future research needs to be more process-oriented to better understand the nature of RSS and its complex roles in the land use-travel research.     

The residential parking rent price elasticity of car ownership in Japan

By using household-level micro data captured through the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure for 2004, this study evaluates the residential parking rent price elasticity of car ownership in Japan. It analyzes the number of cars owned by a household, using various attributes including expenditure for renting a parking space on a monthly basis. The estimation results derived from the IV-ordered probit model show that the absolute value of parking rent price elasticity of car ownership is, at most, 0.48, which is fairly small (i.e., inelastic). The elasticity value varies depending on city size; for megacities, elasticity is always negative for car ownership, whereas for middle-sized or small cities, towns, and villages, elasticity is positive for one-car ownership and negative for the ownership of more than one car. Hence, when the price of parking increases, some people may switch from more than one car to one car and some people in megacities may switch from one to zero cars. Indeed, the net effect of a price increase may be that non-car ownership increases in megacities and one-car ownership increases in other cities.     

Residential density and transportation emissions: Examining the connection by addressing spatial autocorrelation and self-selection

This paper examines the effect of residential density on CO₂ equivalent from automobile using more specific emission factors based on vehicle and trip characteristics, and by addressing problems of spatial autocorrelation and self-selection. Drawing on the 2006 Puget Sound Regional Council Household Activity Survey data, the 2005 parcel and building database, the 2000 US Census data, and emission factors estimated using the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator, we analyze the influence of residential density on road-based transportation emissions. In addition, a Bayesian multilevel model with spatial random effects and instrumental variables is employed to control for spatial autocorrelation and self-selection. The results indicate that the effect of residential density on transportation emissions is influenced by spatial correlation and self-selection. Our results still show, however, that increasing residential density leads to a significant reduction in transportation emissions.