北京城市街区尺度对居民交通评价的影响

居民交通出行质量是影响城市宜居性和可持续发展的重大问题,国内越来越多的地理和规划学者开始关注城市建成环境对交通出行方式的影响,尤其是街区尺度成为相关政策的重点,但细化讨论建成环境对居民交通感知的研究尚不多见。本文以北京为例,结合街区尺度等建成环境客观数据与居民交通评价调查主观数据,采用有序多分类逻辑模型探讨街区尺度特征对居民主观交通便捷性评价和交通安全性评价的影响。研究表明：小街区的模式下交叉路口多,易于设置公交站点,有利于提高居民交通便捷性评价,并且避免了大马路带来的交通隐患,对居民的交通安全性评价也有提升作用;容积率、区位、公交站点等对交通评价具有促进作用。最后分析表明,交通评价还与居民自身属性有关,交通建设需充分考虑不同居民的需求及其分布特征。本文的结论可为推行街区制提供理论支持。

Impact of block size on residents’ travel appraisal in Beijing

Residents' travel convenience and safety are significant concerns for a city's livability and sustainability. Existing transportation research has revealed a strong relationship between urban form characteristics and travel behavior. The rapid urban expansion of many Chinese cities in the past two decades has brought dramatic changes to their urban form and urban fabric. Wide multilane roads, super-long mega street blocks, and increasingly segregated land use are becoming important characteristics of Chinese cities once dominated by narrow allies/streets, tight urban fabric, and mixed-use work compounds, leading to increasing car travel and traffic congestion. Thus, there is a growing interest of scholars in China from geography and planning fields on the impact of urban built environment on travel behavior, especially when block size has become a key focus of urban spatial policymaking. However, little research has investigated urban residents' subjective assessment of their travel environments in China. Using the city of Beijing as a case study, this study took advantage of the latest built environment data and combined them with large scale geo-referenced satisfaction survey data to examine the impact of block size on residents’ travel convenience appraisal and travel safety appraisal. Ordered logit models were used to estimate the effect while controlling for socioeconomic factors. Several findings were generated: (1) Block size varies widely across Beijing. Generally speaking, it increases from the old traditional urban center to peripheral newly-built neighborhoods. But even in the central area, there are also some large blocks that consist of gated universities, hospitals, and other work compounds. The average block size of Beijing is much larger than other international cities. (2) Model results suggest that built environment with small block size could increase the number of road crossings and facilitate public transportation station siting, hence promote residents' travel convenience appraisal. Meanwhile, it could also decrease the travel risk caused by broad main roads, thus increase residents’ travel safety appraisal. (3) Other built environment indicators such as floor area ratio, location, and quantity of public transport stations also significantly influence residents' travel convenience and safety appraisal. (4) Some socioeconomic attributes have significant effects on travel appraisal as well, which indicates that the needs and spatial distribution of different kinds of residents should be taken into account while implementing transport-related policies. The results from the analysis suggest significant impacts that urban block size can exert on residents' travel convenience and safety, indicating the important role that spatial planning can play to help achieve the "green travel" goal promoted in urban China. Evidence generated from this study provides some theoretical support for the national policy of promoting small blocks.