Built environment transformation and activity-travel behavior change in Beijing, China

The significance of traffic congestion and air pollution in Chinese cities was highlighted during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Many attribute the problem to the rocket soaring car ownership and the increasing dependence on car for urban Chinese in their daily travel. More fundamental issues, however, have not yet received sufficient attention: Apart from increased income, what other factors contribute to the growing demand for car? Apart from increased accessibility to car, what other factors contribute to the increased urban traffic? Based on our recent research on urban transportation in China, we hypothesize that spatial restructuring in Chinese cities, resulted from Danwei (or work unit), land, and housing reforms, has largely, if not fundamentally, changed the ways that urban Chinese use time and space and consequently their travel behavior. This paper investigates the interrelations between urban form remaking, car-dependence and traffic congestion in Beijing, the capital city of China. Specifically, we will characterize the built environment in Beijing and establish associations between built environment and activity-travel behavior in terms of car ownership, the use of time and space, travel frequencies and duration and shares of motorized and non-motorized transport modes. The results show that residents of different types of neighborhood demonstrate significantly different travel behavior in terms of car ownership, time use, travel time and travel distance. These findings support the argument that there are associations between built environment and travel behavior.