Driving change: Unveiling the dynamics of transportation resource efficiency and low-carbon urban development in China's provinces

From the perspective of transportation resource allocation efficiency, it is significant to explore the impact of transportation resource allocation efficiency on urban low-carbon development, which is of theoretical guidance value and practical significance to help China achieve the dual-carbon goal as soon as possible. This paper takes the panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) from 2008 to 2021 as samples, adopts the entropy value method and the entropy weight TOPSIS method to measure the level of urban low-carbon development, and utilizes the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the efficiency of transportation resource allocation. The benchmark regression model is used to analyze the direct impact of transportation resource allocation efficiency on urban low-carbon development, and per capita carbon emission is selected as the mediating variable for mechanism analysis. It is found that transportation resource allocation efficiency has a significant positive impact on urban low-carbon development. In addition, the mechanism test shows that transportation resource allocation efficiency can promote low-carbon urban development by reducing per capita carbon emissions. Lastly, the impact of transportation resource allocation efficiency on urban low-carbon development contributes significantly to the eastern, western, and less developed regions.