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• The paper exemplifies China's increasing efforts on road ecology protections. • We demonstrate a strategic approach for positioning and designing wildlife passages. • This approach is useful when high-resolution data are out of availability. • The goitered gazelle is the most dominant species in the area. • Underpasses are proposed with a minimum width of 12 m and a minimum height of 3.5 m. This paper reports on the design of wildlife crossing structures (WCSs) along a new expressway in China, which exemplifies the country's increasing efforts on wildlife protection in infrastructure projects. The line and belt transect method, the surface water survey, and the sign-tracking investigation were used to determine the target species in the study area and the quantity, candidate locations, size, and type of the WCSs. The intensity index and encounter rate showed that the ibex (Capra ibex), argali sheep (Ovis ammon), and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) are the main ungulates in the study area. Among them, the goitered gazelle is the most widely distributed species. Underpass WCSs were proposed based on the expert knowledge and crossing hotspots estimated using survey results. The mean distance between estimated hotspots and their nearest proposed WCSs is around 341 m. In addition, those proposed WCSs have a width of no less than 12 m and height of no lower than 3.5 m, which is believed to be sufficient for ungulates in the area. Given the limited availability of high-resolution movement data and wildlife-vehicle collision data during the road's early design stage, the approach demonstrated in this paper facilitates the practical spatial planning and provides insights into designing WCSs in a desert landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to airborne pollution has substantial adverse health consequences. Governments around the world have paid attention to this problem and started to take action to mitigate its harmful effects. In this paper, we investigate how a change in the consumption tax structure affects car emissions by exploiting exogenous variation from a natural experiment that took place in China. Our results show that this tax policy, which doubled the imposition paid on cars with large engines, reduced the emissions of all the pollutants studied, with the most significant decrease of 11% noted in Particulate Matter and Carbon Monoxide. These results have strong policy implications. By showing the effectiveness of this policy, we uncover the possible benefits of replicating it in different contexts. Further, by using information from COPERT, a totally new approach to evaluate tax and environmental policies, we propose new tools for policymakers to generate rich and detailed data that can be used in different contexts to evaluate policies where data from the population of automobiles is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Mini-EVs are emerging in China with potential benefits but little regulation. • We interview Mini-EV owners in China, who are older, high income, and unlicensed. • Users transitioned from e-bikes and public transit due to perceived safety and cost. • Mini-EVs provide mobility benefits but don't likely lower energy use or emissions. • Drivers should have graduated licenses and be relegated to low-speed roads. Abstract Mini electric cars (mini-EVs) are gaining popularity in many areas in China (∼4–5 million ownership). Mini-EVs are a class of enclosed vehicle smaller than conventional cars. The average range of a mini-EVs is about 100 km, with a maximum speed ranging from 40 to 60 km/h. Their adoption has generated regulatory uncertainty and their classification is ambiguous. While there have been many studies focused on New Energy Vehicles (NEV) (e.g., battery electric conventional car) acceptance rates, purchase intention, and driving behavior; little research has focused on mini-EVs. This paper relies on structured interviews to shed initial light the motives for mini-EV choice and purchase, model choice, travel behavior, and safety. The intention of this paper is to explore key market issues for further analysis and policy intervention; specifically, we aim to profile users and use patterns to inform policy on vehicle standards, licensing, on-road regulations, and subsidy policy. This is the first paper to do this. In-depth interviews with 34 mini-EV owners in Kunming, China reveal an owner profile that is predominately retired male with high household income. Less than half of users have a driver license. Their purchase motives are mostly driven by their age or physical limitations, the convenience and low cost of the vehicle and charging, and the vehicles' low speed. Most users transitioned from using e-bikes and public transit. Policy implications include standardizing mini-EVs designs, imposing a license system for mini-EVs and their users, and sustaining low-speed vehicle infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Explore the self-selection issue from the perspective of households. • Examine how two partners' attitudes affect residential and car ownership decisions. • Husbands' travel attitudes have more influence in these decisions than wives'. • The travel attitudes of two household heads can affect each other's travel behaviors. Abstract Residential self-selection has been acknowledged as a key issue underlining the link between the built environment and travel behavior. Existing studies often implicitly assume that residential choice is a decision of an individual and the influence of intra-household interactions is not considered. In reality, residential choice is a decision often made at the household-level involving more than one household members. Similarly, car ownership is usually a household-level decision incorporating views of different household members. In both cases, the travel related attitudes of more than one household members may play a role in the decision making. In other words, there is an issue concerning residential self-selection (similarly car ownership self-selection): whose self-selection? This paper makes an attempt to probe into this question by examining the self-selection issues concerning residential location choice and car ownership decision from the perspective of households, by incorporating the travel attitudes and travel behaviors of two household heads into an integrated self-selection framework. Data are derived from a household sample survey involving two-day activity-travel diaries conducted in 2016 in Beijing, China. Multivariate modeling results show that household members play different roles in household decisions with travel implications: in general husbands' travel attitudes have relatively more influence in residential choice and car ownership decision than wives'. Nevertheless, wives' travel attitudes have more power than husbands' in explaining the commuting distances of both husbands and wives. Some distinct features of the residential and car ownership self-selections in the Chinese context are also identified and discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems that seriously affect both natural systems and social development of human beings have drawn extensive attention from governing authorities all around the world, and become an urgent issue to be addressed. Ports play a significant role in the international shipping which inevitably influence the global environment. Thus, the concept of green port is developed to mitigate the negative impacts of inappropriate port operations on environment. This paper analyzes the current status of green port development worldwide. An evaluation model for quantitative measurement of green port development is established based on the Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses (DPSIR) framework. The weight of each index composing the evaluation model is calculated through an analytical hierarchy process method, and the evaluation results of the investigated ports with respect to each index are aggregated using an evidential reasoning approach. The evaluation model is further demonstrated through a comparative analysis of five major ports in China. The novel model developed along with the methods applied in this paper can provide significant insights for the comparative evaluation on the development of green ports in other countries and/or regions, as well as a powerful tool to conduct self-assessment of green port development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather, especially typhoons, frequently impacts port operations, causing substantial economic losses. Thus, it has become vital to quantitatively evaluate the resilience of ports to typhoon disasters. This paper offers a comprehensive examination of the current evaluation methods used in assessing the resilience of ports and develops a quantitative port typhoon resilience assessment model based on the 4R (i.e., Reliability, Redundancy, Robustness, and Recoverability) framework. Ports' overall resilience to typhoon disasters can be assessed by integrating the analytic hierarchy process method, fuzzy logic, and the evidence reasoning approach. Four representative coastal ports in China were selected as case studies to examine the suitability and efficacy of the suggested model. This study provides innovative theoretical insights and empirical evidence to advance port resilience research, with a valuable reference for port administrators and policymakers, equipping them to address forthcoming challenges of climate change efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analyze the spatiotemporal variation of shared autonomous vehicle demand. • Consider demand uncertainty in mode choice and departure time choice. • Establish a two-stage joint optimization with the travel price and allowance. Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) is an emerging travel mode that can reduce parking spaces and accelerate urban sprawl. The time–space varying demand leads to the imbalance between travel demand and vehicle supply. Using pricing to affect clients' mode choice is a key method for addressing the imbalance problem, which includes long-term pricing and short-term allowance. Hence, in this paper, we propose an innovative method to enhance the SAV utilization rate while considering stochastic demand: fixed price on population mode choice and real-time allowance on personal departure time choice. A mixed integer nonlinear program is formulated to maximize the total profits of SAV operators. To solve this model, a customized gradient search algorithm is proposed. A case study is conducted in Suzhou Industrial Park, China. It reveals the impacts on travel demand and departure time choices and discusses the impacts and policy-making for SAV applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of dry ports has reshaped the international freight shipping market, introducing both competition pressure (i.e., the common hinterland) and cooperation opportunities (sea-rail intermodal) for seaports. This is more evident in China with the development of the China Railway Express. Unlike dry ports, seaports are more vulnerable to climate change-related disasters, calling for investment in adaptation measures. This paper examines how co-opetition with the dry port affects seaport adaptation investment using a two-stage game-theoretical economic model. Results indicate that cooperation leads to more seaport adaptation investment, while competition results in reduced investment. When compared to the social optimal level of adaptation investment, the seaport tends to under-invest (over-invest) when the cooperation (competition) market size is larger. We also analyze how government subsidies in the seaport's adaptation help achieve optimal social adaptation and how the Knightian uncertainty of the disaster occurrence affects seaport adaptation investments. The relevant policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] To achieve carbon neutrality, it is urgent to quantify carbon emissions to support policy deployment. Based on life cycle assessment, this paper proposed calculation method for carbon emissions from road infrastructure in a Demonstration Zone, China. Based on scenario analysis, this paper quantified the carbon emissions currently and analyzed the trend and characteristics of carbon emissions of road infrastructure from 2020 to 2060 through 4 scenarios. The results show the carbon emissions fluctuate between 20 kt and 540 kt CO 2 from 2013 to 2019 and increase significantly in 2014 due to the surge in road mileage. In the first three scenarios, the carbon emissions show an increasing trend after 2030, with annual growth rates of 1.12%, 0.57%, and 0.27% respectively. However, in the optimal scenario, the peak year of carbon emissions is 2024, with the peak emissions of 649.333 kt CO 2 and an increase of 245% over the base year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of China’s rapid economic development, its transportation system has become one of China’s high-energy-consumption and high-pollution-emission sectors. However, little research has been done which pays close attention to China’s transportation system, especially in terms of energy and environmental efficiency evaluation. In this paper, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to measure the energy and environment performance of transportation systems in China with the goal of sustainable development. This paper treats transportation as a parallel system consisting of subsystems for passenger transportation and freight transportation, and extends a parallel DEA approach to evaluate the efficiency of each subsystem. An efficiency decomposition procedure is proposed to obtain the highest achievable subsystem efficiency. Our empirical study on 30 of mainland China’s provincial-level regions shows that most of them have a low efficiency in their transportation system and the two parallel subsystems. There are large efficiency differences between the passenger and freight transportation subsystems. In addition, unbalanced development has occurred in the three large areas of China, with the east having the highest efficiency, followed by central China and then west. Therefore, more measures should be taken to balance and coordinate the development between the three large areas and between the two subsystems within them. Our analysis approach gives data for determining effective measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recreational amenities are key elements fostering social participation among older adults. • Accessibility is measured based on empirically-based estimates of a cumulative opportunity approach. • Differences in accessibility to recreational amenities across age cohorts are examined. • Spatial disparities across geographical areas are identified for planning and policy interventions. Taking into account the rapidly aging demographic landscape in China, securing elderly's right to participate in society has become an urgent challenge. Geographical access to urban amenities is known to influence social participation and integration. However, the application of accessibility analysis to elderly population in China has received little attention to date. This study examines the walking accessibility to recreational amenities for older adults in the Chinese context with an explicit focus on equity. Building on empirically-based estimates of a cumulative opportunity approach, we calculate the levels of accessibility at the traffic analysis zone level, evaluate how accessibility varies across age cohorts, and present the distribution of accessibility across zones. To this end, we draw on the 2015 Nanjing Travel Survey and the city's GIS database. Instead of assuming a fixed threshold, this paper applies a spatial expansion model to allow for person- and location-specific walking distances to measure accessibility. The spatial disparities in access to recreational amenities are evaluated using the notion of vertical equity for identifying areas that are better-off or worse-off. Our results show pronounced distributional effects of current land-use and transportation policies for different age cohorts. In particular, elderly people experience lower accessibility to chess/card rooms and urban parks than their younger counterparts. The empirical evidence in this research can inform planning and policy interventions and feed current scientific debates on the role of accessibility in addressing social inclusion for an age-friendly society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop an optimization model that integrates spatial and temporal dimensions for strategic planning about whether and when to retrofit ships to use shore side electricity. • We used an improved multi-objective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to solve the optimization model. • We applied the proposed model to a case study of container ships calling at Dalian Port in China to support its effectiveness and applicability. Shore side electricity (SSE) is the use of electricity from the shore to power a ship's system when it is berthing at ports. It is a solution to reduce the emissions of auxiliary engines at berth and to improve the local and regional air quality. This paper develops a multi-objective model that integrates spatial and temporal dimensions for strategic planning regarding whether and when to retrofit ships to use SSE. The strategic planning problem is to maximize the environmental benefit and to minimize the payback period of the investment over the entire planning horizon. By adopting an improved multi-objective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), a series of retrofit strategies for container ships calling at Dalian Port in China are obtained under a projected annual visiting frequency of ships with different ship sizes and shipping lines. Depending on a selected retrofit strategy, the sum of the payback periods of ships that are determined to be retrofitted is 46 years (on average less than four years) and the environmental benefit of using SSE can be up to 128 million USD for Dalian Port in the planning horizon from 2020 to 2035. The results show that using SSE is an efficient method to decline emissions within the maritime sector and validate that the proposed methodology can be useful to ship owners to decide upon investing in SSE applications and to promote the development of green shipping and green ports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examine the decoupling relationship from provincial perspective. • Decompose decoupling index into five sub-decoupling indices and measure its contributions. The transport sector imposes enormous challenges for energy consumption and CO 2 emission reduction. Using data from 30 provinces in China, this paper adopted the Tapio decoupling index to examine the relationship between the development of the transport sector and its CO 2 emissions from provincial perspective. Additionally, we employed the logarithmic mean divisia index method to explore the effect of several factors on the state of decoupling. The results showed that the under-developed provinces were more likely to present a weak decoupling state than the developed and coastal provinces. Income level was the major influential factor limiting the development of decoupling in the transport sector. The population scale had a very small negative role in the development of decoupling. Moreover, the effects of CO 2 emissions efficiency, transport intensity and industry structure varied across provinces. By offering a provincial perspective on decoupling states and its driving factors, this study can provide a reference for governments in proposing carbon-reduction policies and promoting low carbon development of the transport sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• How has TIA adapted to China's context is rarely studied. • China's TIA process enables local planning authorities to secure resources for green transport. • Policy and institutional gaps exists in China's TIA. • China's TIA practice offers insight for other countries. Transport Impact Assessment (TIA) is one of the promising tools used by many city governments around the world to manage the transport impacts of land development, but how it has been implemented in Chinese cities is rarely studied. This paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap by researching cases of TIA in Shenzhen and Zhongshan in China's developed Pearl River Delta. Our research reveals that the TIA process enables local planning authorities to better cope with the traffic externalities stemming from various development projects, and to secure resources in advance for green transport modes. However, the effectiveness of this policy tool still falls short in how governments prioritize green transportation and in implementation details. It can be augmented with clearly defined performance measures for green transport modes and active roles played by relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The impacts of different weather events on the on-time performance of HSR and aviation are compared. • 350,000 records of performance data were processed through an artificial intelligence technique. • Different methods were adopted, including data visualization and regression analysis. • HSR is less vulnerable than aviation to most severe weather events. Abstract Transportation systems have become much more vulnerable due to the increased amount of unexpected severe weather events caused by the effects of climate change. One of the direct consequences is that the punctuality of transportation systems is severely affected and the prediction of the on-time performance of scheduled service becomes challenging due to the uncertainty of severe weather's occurrence. The objective of this paper is to investigate two fundamental questions pertaining to the operational reliability of passenger transportation systems, using high-speed rail (HSR) and aviation in China as an example: what are the impacts of severe weather events on HSR and aviation delays, and to what extent are these systems vulnerable to various types of severe weather events? To address these questions, a dataset with 350,000 detailed, on-time performance records of HSR and air services for the period October 2016–September 2017 was adopted. Based on data visualization and statistical analysis, the study reveals that the impacts of severe weather events on HSR and aviation's on-time performance vary spatially and temporally. In general, HSR is less vulnerable than aviation to most severe weather events. In terms of the spatial variation, the operation of HSR in the southeast coastal region is affected more frequently by rain and thunderstorms, whereas the system operated in central-eastern China is more vulnerable to snowstorms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We investigate the weather's impact on school commute mode choices in Beijing, China. • A large survey of middle school commutes is adopted, containing 97,427 observations. • Multinomial probit and multinomial logit models are estimated and compared. • The air quality index has a significant impact on school commute mode choices. Abstract Weather conditions have been recognized as important factors affecting school commute mode choices. This paper aims to explore the modal shift of middle school commutes with respect to the variation in weather-related variables, with empirical emphases on the situation in Beijing, China. Data from the latest Beijing School Commute Survey (2014–2015) were adopted, and multinomial probit (MNP) and multinomial logit (MNL) models were developed. The modeling results are in favor of the MNP model because it has better statistical performance. Weather-related variables, including sky condition, wind speed, highest temperature, humidity, air quality index (AQI), and some interaction terms, were found to have a significant impact on students' commute mode choices. Based on these models, an empirical sensitivity measure was defined as the expected percentage change in the probability of choosing each mode with respect to an order of magnitude change in the influential factors. Most of the results are in line with those of previous studies, and some unique results reflect features of Beijing. For example, on days with extremely poor air quality, students are more likely to turn to public transport rather than use a car from active transportation modes. This is probably due to the special urban traffic regulations that restrict household car ownership and car travel in Beijing. These findings could have implications for promoting active transportation for students and serve as references for policymakers and planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The overall performance of rail TOD is better than that of BRTOD in China. • The rail-based TOD index correlates negatively with air quality measured by AQI. • The regular bus coverage and the BRT-based TOD index show no significant impact. Abstract In this paper, we aim to see whether transit-oriented development (TOD) in Chinese cities is associated with better air quality. We first identify 37 Chinese cities with existing urban rail transit and/or bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. For each of these cities we generate performance-based TOD indicators – including measures such as urban area coverage, population coverage, street network density and land use mix within station catchment areas – and construct composite TOD indices for each city using those indicators. We also collect daily air quality index (AQI) data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China over the entire year 2014 for 152 cities and calculate annual and seasonal average AQIs for each city. Regression models provide some evidence that rail-based TOD is associated with better air quality, after controlling for meteorological, demographic and economic characteristics. BRT-based TOD shows no significant relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The increases of commuting CO 2 emissions are several times larger than the urban size, population, and economics' developments. • Metro services reducing commuting CO 2 emissions near the metro stations is not statistically significant, possibly because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro. • In Beijing, there are the smallest commuting CO 2 emissions in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while the largest commuting CO 2 emissions in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. Abstract To understand the changing relationships between commuting CO 2 emissions (CCE), travel behavior and urban forms, this paper provides a comparative study between the typical Chinese cities of Beijing (more developed) and Xi'an (rapidly developing). Further, the effects of metro services on reducing CCE were explored, and comparative analysis on CCE between the inner sprawling suburbs and outer suburbs was conducted. It was found that: (i) the increases in CCE are several times larger than the increases in urban size, population, and economic developments; (ii) metro services reducing CCE near metro stations is not statistically significant, maybe because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro; (iii) in Beijing, there are smallest CCE in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while largest CCE in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. These findings indicate that to cope with the rapidly increasing CCE, more attention should be paid to developing strong industry and real-estate simultaneously; the improvement in the feeder bus and public bicycle systems should also be reinforced to reduce the total travel time of metro users; and satellite cities with job-housing balance are greatly needed. The implications will benefit efforts to reduce CCE and mitigate global climate change, and they also provide empirical evidence and reference values for other global cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The relationship between commuting behaviour and congestion satisfaction are significant. • Semi-parameter model results are robust. • Heterogeneous effects on perceived satisfaction about congestion across social-spatial gradients. Abstract Megacity growth in developing countries suffers from heavy congestion, which undermines satisfaction as experienced by local residents. Drawing on a large scale individual survey in Beijing, this paper explores the social-spatial differentiation of urbanites' satisfaction perceptions about congestion by comparing residents with various motorized commuting modes including car, shuttle bus, and public transit. The results show that shuttle bus commuters are significantly associated with better satisfaction perceptions about congestion than other commuting mode users. We find that perceived wellbeing implications vary with demographic characteristics and transport accessibility characteristics. Findings from this study suggest the importance of considering neighborhood built environment into the design of land use and transport policy aiming to enhance commuters' subjective experiences towards congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing of carbon emissions due to traffic congestion in urban centers has been plaguing city managers. Park-and-Ride system are considered as important solutions to reduce urban carbon emissions. However, research on parking reservation on park-and-ride systems is still insufficient. Therefore, this paper explores the impact of parking reservation mechanisms on park-and-ride systems. A multi-modal agent-based network model is constructed to simulate the park-and-ride behavior, different parking reservation strategies are assessed and optimized which aim to minimize carbon emissions. Taking the Suzhou Guanqian Street Commercial District, China as the numerical example, we analyzed the impact of parking space allocation on carbon emissions. When parking spaces are reserved in proportion to demand, emissions decrease until a 70% reservation ratio. Beyond this threshold, emissions increase. Employing Genetic Algorithm (G.A.) to optimize the allocation of reserved parking spaces in each parking lot can further reduce carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century, China is experiencing rapid economic growth alongside increasing car ownership and its attendant challenges. However, little is known about the determinants of expenditure on car acquisition and household car ownership in China, especially their dynamics as this motorization process has taken place. In this paper, we present household car ownership and expenditure analyses using a unique panel dataset, the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). We identify three clusters of households with distinct income and expenditure characteristics consistently existing from 2011 to 2017. We also demonstrate distinctive temporal patterns in expenditure in the periods prior to, at-time-of, and following car acquisition for car-purchasing households. We report that most, but not all, determinants we studied have been stable over time. Finally, contrary to contemporary findings in Western countries, being a younger-aged household is positively associated with car ownership, while living in rural areas has a negative association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the climate emergency, it is necessary to model and forecast road transport emissions for implementing more effective climate policy. This paper fills an important research gap by quantifying the challenges, barriers and remedies of achieving road transport emission reduction and air quality improvement in developing countries. It contributes to the debate on top-down and bottom-up approaches to reconcile carbon and other transport related emissions. China and India are chosen as case studies. Using various official statistics and proxy variables, we estimate and compare the road transport carbon emissions of the two countries systematically from 2009 to 2020. Insights from detailed mode-specific estimations of the bottom-up approach are valuable for targeted policies and measures. An analysis of the major components of road transport carbon emissions points to strategies of promoting electric vehicles, reducing transport demand, accelerating modal shift to low-carbon modes, and cleaner electricity to achieve climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has recently initialised affordable housing policies to provide low rent housings for medium and low income households aiming to satisfy the growing demand in the housing market. The travel behaviour of residents in these two different types of housing is likely to differ, since public housing tenants have a limited choice of residential location, as the location of low-rent housing is fixed, while residents in commodity housing are able to take their travel patterns into account in choosing their housing location. Therefore, this paper investigates the differences in car ownership and trip chaining behaviour arising from living in different types of residential housing. The self-selection bias caused by the differences in the observed individual and household characteristics is partially controlled by a propensity score matching approach. The study further considers the endogenous effect of car ownership on travel chaining behaviour, thus controlling for the self-selection bias at car ownership level. The results show that residents in private commodity housing are more likely to own a car than those in low-rent housing with similar individual and household characteristics. Different life cycle stages play a vital role in car ownership after self-selection in residential housing has been taken into account. Living in private commodity housing has a direct negative effect on trip chaining complexity, after controlling for endogenous car ownership, although this effect is offset by the tendency for private commodity housing owners to do complex trip chaining because they have one or more cars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature on urban transportation planning in China focuses primarily on large cities and neglects small cities. This paper aims to fill part of the knowledge gap by examining travel mode choice in Changting, a small city that has been experiencing fast spatial expansion and growing transportation problems. Using survey data collected from 1470 respondents on weekdays and weekends, the study investigates the relationship between mode choice and individuals’ socio-economic characteristics, trip characteristics, attitudes, and home and workplace built environments. While more than 35 percent of survey respondents are car owners, walk, bicycle, e-bike, and motorcycle still account for over 85 percent of trips made during peak hours. E-bike and motorcycle are the dominant means of travel on weekdays, but many people shift to walking and cycling on weekends, making non-motorized and semi-motorized travel especially important for non-commuting trips. Results of multinomial logistic regression show that: (1) job-housing balance might exert different effects on mode choice in different types of urban areas; (2) negative attitude towards e-bike and motorcycle is associated with more walking and cycling; and (3) land use diversity of workplace is related to commuting mode choice on weekdays, while land use diversities of both residential and activity places do not significantly affect mode choice on weekends. Our findings imply that planning and design for small cities needs to differentiate land use and transportation strategies in various types of areas, and to launch outreach programs to shift people’s mode choice from motorized travel to walking and cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, the world’s largest CO 2 emitter, is continuing its long-term strategy to use transportation investments as a tool for development. With the expectation that transportation will contribute 30–40% of the total CO 2 emissions in China in the near future, there is an imminent need to identify how the development of different transportation modes may have different long-term effects on CO 2 emissions. Using time series data over the period of 1985–2013, this paper applies the combined autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and vector error correction model (VECM) approach to identify short- and long-run causal relationships between CO 2 emissions and mode-specific transportation development, including railway, road, airline, and inland waterway. We find that China’s domestic expansions of road, airline, and waterway infrastructure lead to long-run increases in CO 2 emissions. Among them, waterway has the strongest positive impact on CO 2 emissions, followed by road. Despite a short-run, positive impact on CO 2 emissions, railway expansion leads to long-run decreases in CO 2 emissions. The results are especially encouraging for the central government of China given its long-standing and on-going efforts to expand railway infrastructure at the national level. Looking forward, it is recommended that China continues its national investments in railway infrastructure to achieve both environment and economy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies that encourage mixed land use are widely believed to make transport more energy efficient. However, few studies have directly examined the impacts of land-use heterogeneity on travel energy consumption at the individual level. Moreover, the definition and measures of land-use heterogeneity are debated. This paper aims to fill these gaps using the large city of Beijing, China, as a case study. Three types of land use are examined in terms of their effects on individual residents’ travel energy consumption. The results suggest that high land-use diversity and a good jobs-housing balance significantly reduces commuting travel. Interestingly, highly heterogeneous retail and housing areas may have high travel energy use, as residents are more likely to go shopping. There are obvious spatial variations in these effects. Residents of suburban ‘newtowns’, where the jobs-housing balance is particularly good, consume less travel energy. The results suggest that decreased use of conventional planning patterns, such as the socialist danwei system, and increasing urban sprawl, bring new challenges to achieving transport efficiency. Mixed land-use policies can be an effective solution to these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of BEVs (battery electric vehicles) can significantly mitigate the dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. To advance the development of BEVs, China is adjusting the subsidy and dual-credit policies. This paper addresses these two issues to help policymakers determine effective policies. Through the simulation with a system dynamics model that incorporates the government, automakers, infrastructure operators, and consumers, we find that (1) reducing the overall level of subsidies has a minor impact on the development of BEVs in the long term; (2) subsiding the construction of infrastructure, especially battery swapping stations, will produce better effects than others; (3) the proposed carbon quota mechanism, which is in line with the unified carbon market, is more conducive to the diffusion of BEVs and carbon reduction than the dual-credit policy. Our MLP-SD (multi-level perspective system dynamics) model broadens the analytical perspective of the technology transition in the automobile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major carbon-emitting sector, transportation promotes regional linkages and triggers embodied CO 2 flows that accompany trade. This paper first constructs a 'provincial-national-global' multi-scale input–output (MSIO) model based on IO-nested technology. Then it evaluates the embodied CO 2 in transportation-related trade (TTEC) flows between Chinese provinces and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, and assesses their driving factors from multi-scale regional and cross-sectoral. Empirical findings show that regions with large TTEC flows are mainly concentrated in the northeastern, eastern and southern areas of China. The construction sector is the largest contributor to exported TTEC, while the energy sector has the largest imported TTEC. Singapore and India are the main exporting countries of TTEC from China, and India and Russia occupy a dominant position in importing TTEC. Finally, policy implications are put forward, that should provide quantitative and theoretical support for decision-making on reducing carbon in transportation between China and BRI regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to play an important role in achieving the emission reduction targets in the transportation sector by many countries and regions, including China's dual carbon goals. A bottleneck to the mass roll-out of EVs is the limited charging facilities. This paper considers the planning of charging facilities for a new developing area in a metropolis, and an optimization model for charging station planning based on the dynamic transportation system is proposed. The proposed model is developed using an objective framework that considers the spatio-temporal characteristics of EV charging demand in order to minimize the overall cost while the constraints from suppliers and drivers are met. The Voronoi diagram is used to determine the final service boundary of each charging station, and the effect is verified in the planning of charge stations for the Yizhuang new town in Beijing. The case study confirms that the proposed method can optimize the charging facilities that fit well with the traffic network conditions. Furthermore, it is shown that the charging demand varies in accordance with the population density and regional functionality in different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been regarded as one of the most prominent green technologies, touted to help reduce global energy consumption and carbon emissions. China advocates the development of EVs to address the increasing challenges of climate change, urban air pollution and energy security, but consumers’ enthusiasm for adopting EVs remains low. In this paper, we present a concept model that hypothesizes Chinese cultural values as a key to understanding Chinese consumers’ intention to adopt EVs. Based on a nationwide online survey in China, this study explores Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward two types of EVs—battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles—by identifying the influence of the human–nature relationship, long-term orientation, face consciousness, and risk attitude, as well as the mediating effect of deontological ethical evaluation in decision-making. The results suggest that public policy and social marketing efforts should pay more attention to the role of cultural values when promoting environmentally sustainable technologies, and importantly, that the promotion efforts should differ for different cultural elements and products with different levels of innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing joint distribution between express service providers is important in order to achieve operational efficiency and reduce operational cost. Joint distribution centers (JDCs) are an important part of the modern urban logistics system for online shopping, and selecting the location for a JDC has become a key problem for stakeholders considering sustainability. In this paper, we present a new hybrid fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making method for selecting the location of a JDC considering sustainability. First, we identify the evaluation criteria for location selection integrating the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability. Secondly, a fuzzy set is used to translate linguistic preferences into triangular fuzzy numbers. Subjective criteria weights are calculated by combining the decision makers’ superiority linguistic ratings with a fuzzy AHP method. Objective criteria weights are determined by combining superiority linguistic ratings with a fuzzy-entropy method. Then, improved fuzzy TOPSIS is achieved by using weighted criterion distances to rank these alternatives. This permits a more stable ranking order to be obtained compared to traditional fuzzy TOPSIS which uses Euclidean distance. Finally, an empirical location selection and sensitivity analysis study is conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. This new method allows the location of a JDC to be selected considering sustainability, and will contribute to promoting the sustainable development of China’s express industry and, to some extent, the sustainability and harmony of city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expressways, as the backbone of a city's transportation network, are critical for reducing traffic congestion and improving transportation efficiency of the whole network. The estimation of traffic states and emissions for urban expressways supports traveler information provision and system-wide traffic management. This paper aims to modify the extended generalized Treiber-Helbing filter (EGTF) to fuse GPS data (probe vehicles) and traditional traffic data (loop detectors), so as to enhance more accurate estimations of traffic states and emissions on urban expressways. The speed field is first reconstructed based on heterogeneous data, and then travel time and emissions are estimated using a virtual trajectory method and the VT-Micro model, respectively. The algorithm is applied to a real-world case study for an urban expressway in Beijing, China. After the parameter tuning, the proposed algorithm is compared with existing algorithms from the literature. Numerical results show that data fusion using the proposed algorithm could make better use of heterogeneous data and increase the accuracy of travel time and emissions estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s rapidly rising number of light-duty vehicles (LDVs) on the road is resulting in serious environmental, energy security, and health problems. This paper examines how electrified vehicles (EVs) can help reduce China’s energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the future. Here EVs include hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), and battery electric vehicle (BEV). First, this study uses an Electricity Supply and Emissions Model to forecast the GHG emissions intensity factors of China’s electric grid under three renewable generation adoption scenarios. Then, it uses a China FLEET model to project the stock, energy demand, and GHG emissions of the LDV fleet for different scenarios out to 2050. Results show that there is significant potential for electrification to reduce the energy demand, oil dependence, and GHG emissions of the LDV fleet, because of the high efficiency of EVs, and especially BEVs. Compared to growing the renewable energy contribution to the electricity supply system, expanding EVs in the fleet can occur faster, provided that they become more attractive relative to conventional gasoline vehicles. To help China reverse the rising trajectory of CO 2 emissions by 2030, the aggressive EV scenario and the more-renewables electricity scenario will likely be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the aging trend of the world population, the status and determinants of the travel behavior of the elderly have been gaining more attention in planning and research. Most of the existing research has focused on the influence of socio-demographics and built environments, while the impact of socio-cultural backgrounds has attracted less attention. Regarding the influence of built environments, previous studies have mainly focused on general elements such as density, and land use mixture, while specifics about how built environments influence the elderly have largely been ignored. This paper, therefore, attempts to investigate how socio-cultural settings, interacting with built environments, affect the travel behavior of the elderly in urban China. Particularly, we will examine the impacts of a set of built environment attributes on daily activity participation and the travel distance of the elderly in Nanjing. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, we found that special social and cultural contexts make the travel pattern of Chinese elderly and the determinants of that pattern different from those of their western counterparts. Specifically, it was found that public transportation accessibility instead of auto transportation accessibility, vegetable markets instead of supermarkets and convenience stores, open spaces and parks along with chess and card rooms instead of gyms and sports centers are more decisive in affecting the travel behavior of the elderly. These findings offer insights for policy making on distributing appropriate public facilities for the elderly in urban areas, especially in new towns in urban China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interests in studying of the built environment impacts on travel behavior have proliferated from North America to other parts of the world including China. Until very recently, there has been very little research into travel behavior in China. However, during the last decade, there has been a fast growing interest in studying the built environment and travel behavior in Chinese cities, perhaps motivated by China’s unprecedented urbanization and rapid urban transport development. Case studies from China provide new insights into the impacts of built environment on travel behavior that can help to enrich existing scholarship. However, currently there is a generally poor understanding of the role played by Chinese research and how it has enriched the international literature. This paper aims to fill this gap by reviewing studies in and outside China by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. The focus is on the contribution of these studies to the international literature. We identify four areas of contribution: how the built environment has been developed and its implications for travel behavior; the importance of housing sources in defining residential built environment and explaining travel behavior; the unique Danwei (or work unit) perspective on jobs-housing relationships and commuting behavior; and the importance of neighborhood types in explaining travel behavior in Chinese cities. The findings from this review should be relevant for researchers interested in developing future studies that will further advance geographic knowledge of the built environment and travel behavior, specifically in China and with broader global contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector is one of the major driving forces of carbon emissions. Identifying the factors that affect CO 2 emissions from the transportation sector is important to build a low-carbon city. Most existing research focuses on the total effect of factors on CO 2 emissions while the indirect influence is also the driving force of CO 2 emissions. Additionally, identifying the causal relationship between variables is helpful to study the mutual acting mechanism. Therefore, this paper uses the path analysis model to estimate the direct, indirect and total influences of driving factors on transportation CO 2 emissions in Beijing and investigate the causality relationships between variables. The results show that reducing energy intensity and transportation intensity are the key factors in controlling the increase of transportation-related CO 2 emissions. Population has the greatest positive impact on CO 2 emissions because an increasing population is leading to growth in energy consumption and the number of motor vehicles. However, population could indirectly affect the energy intensity and transportation intensity to reduce carbon emissions. Moreover, motor vehicles increase CO 2 emissions due to the growth in private car population and its low energy efficiency. And, the change in the economic growth pattern somewhat inhibits the growth rate of CO 2 emissions by reducing the energy intensity and transportation intensity indirectly. To further suppress the growth of transportation carbon emissions, the following steps should be taken: appropriately improve the quality of population, control the scale of motor vehicles, develop and promote clean energy, and reduce traffic energy intensity and transportation intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, evaluating CO 2 emissions efficiency and its marginal abatement cost in transportation sectors has been a hot topic. However, while evaluating the CO 2 marginal abatement cost using data envelopment analysis approach, the weak disposability of CO 2 may imply positive abatement cost, which undoubtedly violates our common sense. To obtain non-positive marginal abatement cost, CO 2 emissions should be treated as an input. To reconcile this contradiction, this paper intends to propose a global, directional distance function model based on previous study to investigate the productivity, economic efficiency, CO 2 emissions efficiency, and marginal abatement cost of the China’s regional transportation sectors during 2007–2012. The results show that: (1) the productivity, economic efficiency and CO 2 emissions efficiency of different regions differ widely. More specifically, the coastal areas of south China perform better than the other areas in terms of productivity, economic efficiency, and CO 2 emissions efficiency. (2) Generally, the economic efficiency is greater than CO 2 emissions efficiency, which is relatively low in most areas. (3) A negative correlation is found between CO 2 emissions efficiency and its marginal abatement cost. For a 1% increase in CO 2 emissions efficiency, the CO 2 marginal abatement cost declines by 102 Yuan (in 2004 constant price). The results imply that improving CO 2 emissions efficiency plays an important role in marginal abatement cost reduction, and it also provides us a new approach to reduce abatement cost besides the technical progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the built environment–travel connection has been extensively examined in urban settings, evidence from rural and small towns is still scarce. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the influence of the built environment on travel mode choice using national-level survey data from 119 rural towns throughout China. The results show that rural built environment variables significantly influence mode choice, with socioeconomic, regional economic and natural environment factors controlled: at regional level, close proximity to county centres, highways and bus stops tend to reduce car dependence. At local level, small-scale, compact, and mixed land use encourage walking and bus use. The built environment influences mode choices for shopping trips more than commuting trips. The results suggest that spatial planning for land use and transport networks will be effective in shaping greener travel and sustainable transport development in rural areas of China and in developing countries with similar contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the market potential and environmental benefits of replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the taxi fleet in Nanjing, China. Vehicle trajectory data collected by onboard global positioning system (GPS) units are used to study the travel patterns of taxis. The impacts of charger power, charging infrastructure coverage, and taxi apps on the feasibility of electric taxis are quantified, considering taxi drivers’ recharging behavior and operating activities. It is found that (1) depending on the charger power and coverage, 19% (with AC Level 2 chargers and 20% charger network coverage) to 56% (with DC chargers and 100% charger network coverage) of the ICE vehicles can be replaced by electric taxis without driving pattern changes; (2) by using taxi apps to find nearby passengers and charging stations, drivers could utilize the empty cruising time to charge the battery, which may increase the acceptance of BEVs by up to 82.6% compared to the scenario without taxi apps; and (3) tailpipe emissions in urban areas could be significantly reduced with taxi electrification: a mixed taxi fleet with 46% compressed-natural-gas-powered (CNG) and 54% electricity-powered vehicles can reduce the tailpipe emissions by 48% in comparison with the fleet of 100% CNG taxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Explore the impacts of policy mix characteristics on electric vehicle adoption. • Emphasize the moderating roles of the consistency of policy mixes. • Expand the theory of planned behavior from a policy mix perspective. • Survey data from 927 participants in China. • Managerial implications for policymakers are highlighted. Policy mixes that combine multiple policy instruments together are proposed as methods to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). This paper examines the links among psychological factors, policy mix characteristics, and EV purchase intention based on an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). The empirical results from a survey in China reveal that the consistency, coherence, and credibility of policy mixes matter greatly in increasing an individual's EV purchase intention, whereas comprehensiveness has a non-significant effect. More importantly, the consistency negatively moderates the effects of consumer attitude, subjective norm, and personal norm on purchase intention, but positively moderates the relationship between perceived behavioral control and purchase intention. This paper makes theoretical contributions by extending the TPB from a policy mix perspective, which provides new knowledge for both policy research and EV adoption literature. The findings also have policy implications for the adoption of EVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct a TPT framework for variable-specific decomposition. • Compute the inefficiencies for all variables in the modified BAM model. • The dynamic evolution of China's highway transport sector is exploited with the LPI. • Find out the relationship among traffic accidents, CO 2 emissions and value added. As main undesirable outputs of transport sector, controlling traffic accidents and carbon dioxide (i.e., CO 2) emissions are the key points for sustainable development in highway transport sector. This paper proposes an extended Data Envelopment Analysis (i.e., DEA), namely the unified Bounded-adjusted Measure (BAM), to measure the variable-specific technical inefficiency and the corresponding productivity change of highway transport sector during 2006–2015 in China. Note that, through the analysis of total factor decomposition, this paper seeks the key points for the safe operation and emissions reduction of provincial highway transportation sector in China. The results show that the quantity of traffic accidents, CO 2 emissions from highway transport sector, along with investment constitute important source leading to the inefficiency of highway transport sector in China. The static inefficiency values associated with conventional provinces whose value added growth relies on transportation is high. Regarding Luenberger productivity indicator, the reduction of traffic accidents has had a significant positive effect on total factor productivity (TFP), and has been slightly better than the weak positive effect of CO 2 emissions reduction since 2006. Thus, in the latter stage, Chinese highway transportation policy should address the regulation on CO 2 emissions. From the perspective of decoupling theory, China's overall road transport output value is coordinated with the quantity of traffic accidents and CO 2 emissions, but the internal differentiation appears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although operational activities in the aviation sector inevitably bring more emissions, they also reshape the structure of the regional economy, and often upgrade emission-heavy industries to cleaner service sectors. Thus, the overall impact of aviation network development on the region's environmental trajectory is unclear, and calls for rigorous empirical study. Using the data of 283 Chinese prefecture-level cities for the period 2003–2017, this paper proposes and calculates a comprehensive "carbon lock-in" index to measure cities' reliance on emission-heavy sectors and resistance to emission reduction. Then, we calculate cities' air connectivity and network centrality to measure the aviation development, and also examine their direct, indirect, as well as heterogeneous impacts on cities' carbon lock-in. Our empirical results suggest that an improved aviation network development helps alleviate carbon lock-in. Mechanism analysis further reveals that fixed input, industrial structure upgrading, and technological innovation are the three underlying channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxing vehicle emissions has been advocated as an effective measure to solve the smog and haze problems in China. This paper investigates the effects of vehicle emission taxes on residential segregation in a model of a monocentric city with two income classes. The proposed model explicitly considers the interactions among three types of stakeholders, namely the authority, property developers and heterogeneous households in terms of income level. The properties of the proposed model are analytically explored and the optimal vehicle emission taxes that maximize the social welfare of the urban system are determined. The conditions under which either the rich or the poor lives in the urban central area while the other class in the suburb are identified. The findings show that (i) a high emission tax can drive the low-income households to migrate from suburbs to urban central areas, and the high-income households to migrate from urban central areas to suburbs; (ii) the implementation of the vehicle emission taxes can effectively reduce the air pollution cost and increase the total social welfare of the urban system; and (iii) the emission tax policy may incur inequity issue in terms of change in utility levels of different income classes before and after introducing the vehicle emission taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we first analyze the historical trends in road transportation energy consumption and GDP in developed economies to find out the development characteristics of road energy consumption. The two indexes present obvious ‘S’ type patterns. Then, in order to explore the current status and future trend of road energy transportation in China, we employ path analysis to analyze the impact mechanism of the factors related to road transportation energy consumption. Next, we adopt the BMA model to select the core factors related to road transportation energy consumption in China, and on the basis of the model selection as well as univariate (ETS & ARIMA models) and multivariate (multiple regression) models, the road transportation energy consumption is analyzed and forecast. The results showed that the road transportation energy consumption rises by 0.33 percent for every percent increase in GDP and by 1.26 percentage points for every percent increase in urbanization. The road transportation energy consumption in China is expected to reach around 226181.1 ktoe by the end of 2015, and about 347,363 ktoe by 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway is one of the most efficient and environmental-friendly ways to transport people and goods. High-speed railway has been developing rapidly and the railway mileage has increased by 21.18% in China during the period of 2006–2011 and thus it is interesting to evaluate whether the railway transportation has reduced the environmental impact of transport in China. In this paper, we first use a non-radial DEA under managerial disposability to measure the environmental efficiency of 30 regions in China; then we propose a panel beta regression with fixed effects to model the impact of railway transportation on environmental efficiency. The results indicate that the environmental efficiency slowly increased during 2006–2011 and it exhibits regional disparities with the eastern area having the highest environmental efficiency and the western area being the lowest one; Moreover, we also find a significant positive impact of railway transportation on higher environmental efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses comparable urban transport scenarios for China and India. The assessment methodology uses AIM/End-use model with a detailed characterization of technologies to analyze two scenarios for India and China till the year 2050. The first scenario assumes continuation and enhancement, in both countries, of policies under a typical business-as-usual dynamics, like constructing metros, implementing national fuel economy standards, promoting alternate fuel vehicles and implementing national air quality standards. The alternative, low carbon scenario assumes application, in both countries, of globally envisaged measures like fuel economy standards as well as imposition of carbon price derived from a global integrated assessment modeling exercise aiming to achieve global 2 °C temperature stabilization target. The modeling results for both countries show that decarbonizing transport sector shall need a wide array of measures including fuel economy, low carbon fuel mix including low carbon electricity supply. The comparison of China and India results provides important insights and lessons from their similarities and differences in the choice of urban transport options. India can benefit from China’s experiences as it lags China in urbanization and income. Modeling assessments show that both nations can contribute to, as well as benefit by aligning their transport plans with global climate stabilization regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid expansion of the high-speed railway infrastructure in China, conflicts arise between the interests of local citizens living along the planned tracks and the national interests of governmental authorities and project developers. This paper addresses questions of why and how Chinese citizens mobilize for and participate in protests against high-speed railway projects and to what effect. To this end, a comprehensive study was conducted on the decision-making process, public opinions, and protest actions regarding the plans and site choices for the Beijing–Shenyang high-speed railway from 2008 to 2013, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. In general, local residents are supportive of high-speed railway project construction, but they contest the closed decision-making process and the poor design and siting choices for the track by governmental authorities and companies. After four years of resident protests through formal complaints, lobbying, protest demonstrations, organizing alternative opinion polls, and discussions with authorities, citizens were partially successful in changing the siting of the track, adding protective measures (e.g., tunnels and sound screens), and saving green belts. Two conclusions can be drawn from this case study. First, regardless of the growing legal requirements, public participation in major projects in China is far from a standard practice. Final citizen participation is often preceded by serious conflict. Second, with defined good governance boundaries, there is increasing room for public participation in environmental movements, which does influence final decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the impacts of economic analysis results on sea-level rise adaptation decision making with different economic analysis methods. The methodology was applied to Hillsborough County, Florida. A general conclusion is that partial shoreline protection should be implemented to reduce the potential impacts of sea-level rise on important land use, then transportation infrastructure is preferred to be protected or accommodated, and finally managed relocation should be adopted. More specifically, the results show that the best adaptation strategy is shoreline protection plus transportation infrastructure accommodation; the length of shoreline protection plays an important role in the economic analysis results, and shoreline protection and accommodation adaptation strategies for all areas are not recommended because of either high costs or low benefits; the value of travel time saving and spatial autocorrelation play important roles in the economic analysis results of accommodation strategy, which highlights the importance of including indirect economic factors and spatial autocorrelation impacts when making sea-level rise adaptation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]