Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-16DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103776
Xiaoran Qin , Jintao Ke , Hai Yang
{"title":"Government regulations for ride-sourcing services as substitute or complement to public transit","authors":"Xiaoran Qin , Jintao Ke , Hai Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103776","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103776","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid expansion of on-demand ride-sourcing services has revolutionized the landscape of multi-modal urban transport systems, particularly with regard to the public transit system. Ride-sourcing services can be either a substitute or complement to public transit. Regarding the complementary effects, ride-sourcing services can address first/last-mile problem to enhance public transit ridership, which aligns with the objective of the government to coordinate multiple travel modes. In this paper, we establish a mathematical model to characterize the complementary and substitution relationships between ride-sourcing and public transit services. Three market scenarios are compared and analyzed, including the laissez-faire market without government intervention, the market under a price-cap regulation, and the market under a subsidy policy. The insights could help understand how government regulations affect ride-sourcing platforms’ profit-pursuing decisions and the resulting social benefits, such as public transit ridership. Finally, we offer practical suggestions for the government to design the appropriate regulations to better coordinate ride-sourcing and public transit services, under situations with different demand-supply ratios. We prove that when the demand-supply ratio is high enough, it is unnecessary to introduce any regulation to promote public transit, whereas at a medium ratio, the government is able to set a critical value of decision variables in each policy such that all travelers use public transit.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103776"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144904146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-15DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103770
Madiha Bencekri, Juhyeon Kwak, Sion Kim, Minje Choi, Juho Lee, Jongwon Lee, Seungjae Lee
{"title":"Spatial determinants of mental health in Seoul: Cycling, income inequality, and access to care","authors":"Madiha Bencekri, Juhyeon Kwak, Sion Kim, Minje Choi, Juho Lee, Jongwon Lee, Seungjae Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103770","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103770","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As cities face growing mental health challenges, the role of transport infrastructure in shaping psychological wellbeing remains underexplored. This study investigated how cycling accessibility, mental healthcare provision, and income inequality jointly influence the spatial distribution of severe mental health outcomes in Seoul. Employing a three-stage spatial framework, Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), Random Forest (RF), and Suitability Analysis (SA), this study assessed the spatial heterogeneity, nonlinear interactions, and district-level intervention priorities. Results from GWR indicate that cycling infrastructure is the most consistent spatial predictor of mental health disparities, with coefficients as high as 0.81 in districts like Gangnam-gu. Healthcare access and income inequality show more localised yet significant associations. RF modelling confirmed these patterns, ranking healthcare (36 %), cycling accessibility (33 %), and income inequality (31 %) as primary contributors. SA highlights districts such as Songpa-gu and Gangnam-gu as high-priority areas for integrated transportation and public health interventions. Anomalies such as Gangseo-gu, where high vulnerability coexists with low model fit, underscore the need for further localised investigation. By integrating spatial analytics with transport equity and health policy perspectives, this study provides a scalable framework for mental health sensitive infrastructure planning. It positions cycling not only as a sustainable mobility solution but also as a key policy lever for advancing urban health equity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103770"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144866051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-14DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103775
Meng Hou , Puxuan Jing , Di Ke , Hangjun Yang
{"title":"The impact of airport opening on urban financial development: Evidence from China","authors":"Meng Hou , Puxuan Jing , Di Ke , Hangjun Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Airports play a vital role in connecting regions and promoting economic activities, particularly in stimulating urban financial development. To examine the relationship between airport opening and urban financial development, this study employs a time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) model to conduct an empirical analysis of panel data from 277 cities in China, covering the period from 2010 to 2019. Our findings reveal that airport opening significantly promotes urban financial development, primarily by accelerating capital flow and increasing wage rates. This positive effect is especially pronounced in the eastern and western regions of China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103775"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144866047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-12DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103771
Phil Churchman , Kate Pangbourne , Thijs Dekker , Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues
{"title":"Purposive transition governance for road freight decarbonization","authors":"Phil Churchman , Kate Pangbourne , Thijs Dekker , Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103771","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103771","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Road freight decarbonization, like other complex system transitions, presents a formidable political, social and organizational as well as technical and economic challenge. While technical and economic aspects have received considerable research focus, there is much less research on political, social and organizational aspects. Purposive road freight decarbonization furthermore needs an effective governance framework to coordinate system-level decision-making that reflects all these important system dimensions. Findings from literature regarding governance requirements for purposive system transitions are synthesized to form a novel framework organized around the three pillars of governance processes, effectiveness and legitimacy. This framework is validated and further developed via thirteen semi-structured interviews and a workshop with transport authorities and industry associations. Conclusions are drawn regarding maintaining system functions and managing asymmetric power relations during transitions; key governance enablers; and the importance of achieving input, throughput and output legitimacy. Governance connections are identified, and the implications of these for transition wickedness discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103771"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144851932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-11DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103769
Zhi-Chun Li , Zhenni Ma , Duy Quy Nguyen-Phuoc , Xiaowen Fu
{"title":"Influential factors and passenger satisfaction towards integrated urban-rural bus services: A case study of Chibi, China","authors":"Zhi-Chun Li , Zhenni Ma , Duy Quy Nguyen-Phuoc , Xiaowen Fu","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103769","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103769","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To enhance transport accessibility and mobility in rural areas, the Chinese government has been implementing a program to integrate urban and rural bus services (urban-rural bus integration). This paper proposes a model for investigating the influential factors and passenger satisfaction towards such integrated urban-rural bus services using customer satisfaction theory. The proposed model incorporates latent variables, including bus company image, perceived quality (evaluated in terms of safety, comfort, reliability, and convenience), perceived value, passenger satisfaction, and passenger loyalty. Data were collected from both urban and rural areas in Chibi city of Hubei province, China. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to validate the relationships between the variables. The findings show that bus company image and perceived quality significantly affect passenger satisfaction towards the integrated urban-rural bus services. The Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) highlights significant heterogeneity in the perception of satisfaction among passenger groups with different genders, residences and ages. Specifically, female, urban and non-elderly residents’ attitudes are more influenced by the bus company image than male, rural and elderly ones, whereas rural and elderly residents are more sensitive to the perceived quality. These insights provide a deeper understanding of the key factors influencing passenger satisfaction and can help predict the future travel intentions of different passenger groups between urban and rural areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103769"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144828063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-11DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103768
Ryuichi Tani, Kenetsu Uchida
{"title":"A small-scale microeconomic model to evaluate the road network policy under the mixed flow of autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles","authors":"Ryuichi Tani, Kenetsu Uchida","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103768","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103768","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study defined the users' behaviors of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and human-driven vehicles (HVs) based on the time allocation model and proposed a small-scale microeconomic model for AV policy evaluation. The model makes it possible to calculate the benefit in the road network under the mixed flow of AVs and HVs. The representative users of AVs and HVs are assumed to consume composite goods, leisure time, and road transportation offered by AVs or HVs. The transportation service considers the congestion effect and is determined by solving the multiclass traffic assignment model under the mixed flows. The previous studies addressing AVs assume the heterogeneous values of time (VoT) of AV and HV users, which are given exogenously. This study does not give VoTs exogenously but considers the heterogeneity of the disposable time and income of AV and HV users, respectively. As a result, the impact of a multitasking effect in AVs on the users' utility and the benefit can be estimated. We performed a numerical test in a test network to verify the proposed model and examined the relationship between indirect utility, AV penetration rate, and AV performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103768"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144828064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-09DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103765
Simon Bothof , Geert te Boveldt , Kobe Boussauw
{"title":"Identifying transport policy priorities through a meta-analysis of cost-benefit analysis in the Netherlands and Flanders","authors":"Simon Bothof , Geert te Boveldt , Kobe Boussauw","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103765","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103765","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we assess cost-benefit analysis (CBA) reports and outcomes for transport projects in the Netherlands and Flanders between 2010 and 2024. CBA has been used extensively to evaluate potential investments in transport infrastructure, and to compare options. We investigate which factors contribute most to the Net Present Value (NPV) of CBAs and to what extent social, ecological and economic criteria are relevant to the outcomes of the evaluation. Results show that on average 80 % of monetized effects stem from economic criteria, whereas social (15 %) and ecological (5 %) criteria contribute far less to the outcome. This is also reflected in the finding that for 90 % of the cases the exclusion of social and ecological criteria does not change the outcome of the NPV calculation (from positive to negative, or vice-versa). Although sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the discourse around transport infrastructure, both social and ecological aspects of sustainability have only a minor impact on the NPVs and outcomes of CBAs for transport projects in the two territories and the time period under investigation. This implies that most transport investments do not specifically target sustainability issues, or that CBA does not reflect these considerations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103765"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144878660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regional differences in the recycling capacity of retired batteries for new energy vehicles in China: A perspective of sales volume forecasting","authors":"Bingchun Liu , Jiali Chen , Yuan Gao , Xinming Zhang , Shiming Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103764","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103764","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the global energy transition and the advancement of carbon neutrality goals, new energy vehicles (NEVs), as a critical pathway to reduce fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions, have experienced explosive growth in China. The first large-scale wave of battery retirements is imminent, and an inadequate recycling system could trigger environmental risks such as heavy metal pollution and resource waste. Although China has established a nationwide recycling network, significant regional imbalances persist at the provincial level. This study aims to reveal the distribution of end-of-life (EoL) batteries and the mismatch risks with recycling capacity, providing a basis for regionally differentiated policy formulation. To achieve this, a multi-factor model is developed integrating grey relational analysis, discrete wavelet transform, and bidirectional long short-term memory network to forecast NEVs sales across China's 31 provinces from 2024 to 2035. The dynamic Weibull distribution is employed to quantify EoL batteries, and the Pearson coefficient is utilized to evaluate recycling capacity matching. The results indicate that: (1) NEV market penetration will exceed 50 % by 2033, two years ahead of the policy target; (2) EoL batteries will surge starting in 2026, with Eastern China accounting for 42 % of the national total, emerging as the primary hub; (3) Recycling capacity gaps have already emerged in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, while other provinces will gradually enter phases of insufficient capacity post-2026. This study uncovers the spatio-temporal evolution of recycling networks and retirement volumes at the provincial scale, proposing optimization strategies such as regional risk alerts and cross-regional collaboration. These findings provide scientific support for governmental capacity planning and corporate investment decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103764"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144828065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transport PolicyPub Date : 2025-08-05DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103763
Yan Li, Cong Wang, Xinxin Xia, Qingbo Huang
{"title":"Impact of China Europe Railway Express operation on green total factor productivity and spatial spillover effect in Chinese cities","authors":"Yan Li, Cong Wang, Xinxin Xia, Qingbo Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103763","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103763","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is a core indicator for measuring high-quality urban development, and improving urban GTFP is key to enhancing the quality and sustainability of urban development. As an important channel for trade between China, Central Asia, and Europe, the opening and operation of the China Europe Railway Express (CRE) have significantly impacted China's urban development. This study focuses on the impact of the opening of the CRE on the GTFP of node cities. Using data from 274 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020, the multiperiod difference-in-difference (DID) method and spatial DID method are used to investigate the impact of regularly operated node cities after the opening of CRE on urban GTFP. We use all operated node cities (including regularly and not regularly operations cities) and not regularly operated node cities as control group. The results reveal that, the regularly operated node cities of CRE has significantly promoted the GTFP of Chinese cities, but heterogeneity exists in city type, city size, and region. From a spatial perspective,the regularly operated node cities have a siphon effect on surrounding cities, but no effect on adjacent cities. Notably, the siphon effect extends in 700 km, and competition with other cities emerges between 800 km and 1200 km. Mechanism analysis reveals that urban foreign trade and industrial agglomeration (IA) within cities can improve the GTFP of node cities through the moderating effect of CRE. However, IA itself has an inhibitory effect on urban GTFP. Our results reveal the impact of CRE's operation on the GTFP of Chinese cities and provide some suggestions for cities that will be opening the CRE to improve their GTFP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48378,"journal":{"name":"Transport Policy","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 103763"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}