Associations of proximity to metro stations with transport poverty: Spatial and temporal variations

This work explores the associations of proximity to metro stations with transport poverty and their spatial and temporal variations. The study's observations are from the 1488 neighborhoods in the Taipei Metropolitan Area, Taiwan, covering data from 1996 to 2016. A transport poverty index, defined as the disparity between the economic deprivation index and the job accessibility index, is proposed to measure the transport poverty degree of a neighborhood. Panel data and linear regression models are applied to analyze the data. The results indicate the following: (1) Distance to metro stations is positively associated with the degree of transport poverty within the specific distance thresholds. (2) The positive relationships move downward as a whole over time with the increase in the number of metro stations. (3) The overall downward moves of positive relationships are decreasing with distances to metro stations in the short term but are increasing with distances to metro stations in the long term. These findings highlight that, when developing metro networks, local administrations should simultaneously promote accessibility plans in areas distant from metro services and prioritize improvements in transit and motorcycle accessibility.