PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (1): 118-125.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2016.01.013

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Multi-objective evaluation of urban transportation efficiency:Take Beijing as an example

Jue JI1,2(), Xiaolu GAO2(), Xingchen LIU2   

  1. 1. The Administration Center of Urban-rural Planning Ministry of Housing & Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China, Beijing 100835, China
    2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • Online:2016-01-31 Published:2016-01-31
  • Supported by:
    China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No.2015T80126, No.2014M550820;National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41171138;Soft Science Project, No.2014GXS4B072

Abstract:

With rapid urbanization, huge populations concentrate in cities, greatly increasing the environmental pressure of urban systems. Improving convenience of travel and at the same time reducing its negative effects on the environment, such as mitigating carbon emissions, is the key objective of present and future sustainable urban transportation development and important indicators of urban transportation efficiency. This research adopted a multi-objective evaluation method to evaluate transportation efficiency, including quantitative models for estimating carbon emission and convenience of travel and integrated methods of carbon emission and transport convenience. The six central urban districts in Beijing were chosen as our study area to test the evaluation method and explore mechanisms of transportation efficiency. The results show that transportation efficiency in Beijing differs between the central city and the outside areas. The efficiency is lower outside the 5th ring road, and higher inside the 3rd ring road. Especially, there are several centers of high and low transportation efficiency areas. The high efficiency centers are located in (1) the Gongzhufen-Wukesong area around the west 3rd and 4th ring roads; (2) the Anzhen Bridge area near the north 3rd ring road; and (3) the Sanlitun area near the east 3rd ring road. The low efficiency centers are located in the suburban areas, such as along the northwest 6th ring road, some areas between the 5th and 6th ring road in the southwest, and the Changying area outside the 5th ring road in the east. Besides, the spatial differences of transportation efficiency in Beijing have a close relationship with the geographic context. High carbon emission is the main cause of low transportation efficiency; this is particularly true in the areas where luxury-villas are located, and where public transportation service provision is insufficient. High proportion of car usage and long commuting distance are the main causes of high carbon emission. In the future, the construction of public transportation, especially the optimization of the subway system development, will improve the spatial distribution of transportation efficiency.

Key words: transportation efficiency, multi-objective evaluation, DEA, traffic carbon emission, travel convenience