Liu, L; (2017) The impact of rail transit systems on urban regeneration and development in a Chinese large city – a case study of Chongqing. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Many urban rail transit systems are being built or upgraded, especially in rapidly-developing Chinese cities, with the aim of redeveloping and regenerating particular neighbourhoods. There are direct impacts (such as improved travel accessibility) and also indirect impacts (land use changes, as well as economic, environmental and social changes) typically associated with transport investment. However, transport investment is only one of the factors affecting the success of a particular development initiative. Previous research studies into other factors have varied in their methodology, and it has been difficult to isolate the most important factors, clearly establish causality, and draw general conclusions that can be used in practice. There is an emerging body of evidence suggesting that regeneration effects, triggered by urban transit systems, exert different types of impact, not only on geographic locations, but also on different income groups. Hence there are different ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ from investments, and a social equity dimension exists. The social impacts of transport investment are quite poorly understood in the literature. Evidence is derived from Chongqing (重庆, simplified Chinese), a large, newly-emerging and rapidly-developing city in the Southwest region of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred to as, simply, ‘China’). This research aims to understand how investment in urban rail transit might affect urban development in China; how the impact of rail transit differs spatially and across income groups; how to assess the dimensions of (in)equity that arise; and how societies might develop an appropriate strategy for future investment that coordinates and balances the diverse motives and needs of stakeholders in the process. This research utilises both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches: using analysis of census and citywide travel survey data, and also a bespoke local residential survey. A range of statistical techniques is used to examine the socio-spatial distribution of the impacts of rail transit, including logistic regression, geographic weighted regression (GWR), multilevel modelling, MANOVA and discriminant analysis. Based on the interviews of different stakeholders in the transit development process, reflections are made on the policies and planning interventions which might be introduced to achieve greater equity in impacts. As a result, this thesis has successfully addressed the research questions and contributed to: developing a methodological framework for understanding the direct and indirect impacts of rail transit investment on development; providing a comparative study examining the spatial distribution of the indirect impacts of rail transit investment; evaluating the distribution of benefits and burdens across social groups in Chongqing; and proposing a process to help understand governments’, developers’ and other stakeholders’ views on the impacts of rail transit investment and development.

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