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Improved accessibility by transit service constitutes a critical component in removing spatial barriers in daily mobility for disadvantaged groups. However, the effects of transit accessibility on the daily mobility and activity participation of different social strata remain inconclusive. This study investigates the role of transit accessibility on the activity space of three income groups in Hong Kong. The results show that the availability of transit stations and network accessibility by mass transit rail (MTR) are significantly linked to the spatial extensiveness of activity space of the higher- and medium-income commuters, while bus plays a more important role for the daily mobility of the low-income group. Concerning non-work activity participation, the low-income non-commuters appear less affected by the availability of MTR stations than the other two groups, suggesting a potentially lower ability of using MTR to carry out different daily activities. Our findings offer some in-depth insights into the possible social inequality of using transit service, thereby contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between transit accessibility and mobility in relation to economic status. Policy recommendations to alleviate transport disadvantage and improve social equity are proposed.

As a newly emerged bike-sharing system, dockless bike-sharing has the potential to positively influence urban mobility by encouraging active cycling and drawing users from car, public transit and walking. However, scant empirical research explores the extent to which dockless bike-sharing replaces other travel modes for different travel purposes. There is a lack of knowledge about how dockless bike-sharing users’ personal characteristics and neighborhood environment features influence their mode substitution behaviors. Using survey data collected from residents in Beijing and geodata of land use and public transit, we conduct four multinomial logistic models to explore potential mode-substitution behaviors influenced by dockless bike-sharing for four travel purposes: work or education commuting, sports and leisure, grocery shopping, and recreational activities such as shopping, eating and drinking. The results indicate that, for the majority of respondents, dockless bike-sharing systems potentially substitute for walking or public transit. In addition, our analysis of travel attitudes points out that dockless bike-sharing not only attracts bicycle lovers but also users with a preference or positive attitude toward other travel modes. The positive association between the length of bicycle paths and the likelihood of potentially replacing public transit or motorized vehicles by dockless bike-sharing also reveals that the cycling infrastructure of residential neighborhood could be an important facilitator for users of public transit and motorized vehicles to switch to dockless bike-sharing systems.

The use of electric bikes (e-bikes) is attracting increasing attention from researchers and policymakers as a way to promote sustainable transportation. However, knowledge about the built environment factors that influence e-bike use is lacking. In China, most evidence on e-bikes and travel behavior stems from big cities; there is much less evidence concerning small cities and their adjacent rural areas. Using travel data collected in a small Chinese city (Ganyu), the present research explores the impact of the built environment around residential and work locations on individuals’ commute mode choice, with a particular focus on e-bike use. Consistent with the few previous studies on travel behavior in small Chinese cities, we find that most residents of Ganyu commute only short distances and that the e-bike is the primary mode for their daily commutes. The results of a nested logit model show that e-bike use is more popular among females and low-income groups, and that certain built environment characteristics at the work location promote e-bike use. Moreover, the built environment in different geographical contexts has different influences on commute mode choice. In particular, the presence of city/town roads without bike lanes at work locations promotes e-bike use among rural residents but much less so among urban residents.

High-speed railway (HSR) has become a sustainable transport mode for inter-city travel, especially in China. As public transport (PT), the use of HSR involves access and egress to and from HSR stations. However, the literature focusing on the intra-city mode choice of HSR travelers is limited, especially regarding their differential socio-demographic and trip characteristics. This paper aims to fill that gap with an analysis of access/egress mode choice for business and leisure journeys in the Yangzi River Delta region. Using the HSR survey from Fudan University, we found that in China older and wealthier travelers have a strong preference for car use. For leisure travel, the explanatory power of the socio-demographic variables is much more influential in the egress than the access stage. With increasing access time, business travelers may be enticed to shift to a faster form of PT (e.g., subway rather than bus) in the access stage. With increasing line-haul time, only business travelers have a stronger preference for car use as their intra-city mode choice for business activities. A higher number of subway lines and diversity of land use around HSR stations is associated with less car use for business travelers in the egress stage.

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the concept of tradable driving credits (TDC) as an alternative to road pricing and driving restriction measures. However, empirical research into drivers’ responses to a TDC measure is limited and even lacking for the Chinese context where the concept of TDC has attracted considerable attention. This paper reports the results of a survey that was the first to investigate drivers’ willingness to change car use under a hypothetical distance-based TDC measure in China (Beijing) and aimed to compare these results with the results of a comparative Dutch survey. We observed that willingness to change was considerably higher in Beijing than in the Netherlands and that a substantial share of Beijing car owners indicated an increase in car use. In both contexts, higher education and higher car use intensity had a positive effect on the willingness to change, whereas higher income had a negative effect. We found mixed results for household size, respondents’ car attitudes, and TDC scenario characteristics.

Policies in urban and transportation planning increasingly aim at improving residents’ wellbeing. Satisfaction with travel (SWT) is a relevant component of well-being. Insight into the effect of the built environment on SWT is limited and therefore the focus of this paper. To assess this effect, a crucial issue is to what extent a relationship between the built environment and SWT is due to residential self-selection. To explore this question, a survey was held in corridors of the Twin Cities, which differed in terms of accessibility and transit options. Respondents reported their SWT, travel preferences and reasons for location choices, among other things. Using a fixed-effect model of SWT, we found that self-selection plays a significant role in explaining SWT, but that built environment characteristics also have an independent effect on SWT. Taken together this suggests that policies to build high-quality transit have a positive effect on SWT, in general, and particularly for those with a transit preference.

The advance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has changed travellers’ appreciation of travel distance in various ways. In the context of telecommuting, ICT increasingly allows us to work from home one or more days per week. One hypothesis that has been put forward is that because ICTs reduce the frequency of commuting, it allows workers to accept longer commute distances, implying that telecommuters have a different valuation of travel distance than regular commuters and would also favour more peripheral residential locations. The question can be raised, however, whether telecommuters can be regarded as a homogeneous group with respect to their valuation of commute distance and residential preferences. To investigate the heterogeneity of commuters’ and telecommuters’ preferences, latent class discrete choice models of workers’ intended relocation probability and preferred residential environment were estimated. The results suggest that telecommuting is not a factor that can be used to identify segments with different residential preferences. However, within the group of telecommuters, two different classes can be identified, which can be characterised as being sensitive and insensitive to commute distance.