Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

2-2020

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.

Keywords

transit desert, transit demand, transit supply, China

Discipline

Asian Studies | Urban Studies

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Volume

9

Issue

2

First Page

1

Last Page

12

ISSN

2220-9964

Identifier

10.3390/ijgi9020100

Publisher

MDPI

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9020100

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