The shrinking continent: new time - space maps of Europe

Transport makes cities: transit maps as major cognitive frames of metropolitan areas

Spatial representations play a fundamental role in navigation, decision-making, and overall interaction with our environments. Understanding how individuals construct and use them holds significant importance in spatial cognition research, and even bears practical implications for urban planning as it can explain how we interact with the spaces we inhabit. In large urban areas, transit maps stand as prominent visual aids, guiding people through public transportation systems. These maps, while designed for navigational purposes, may influence how individuals perceive and represent their cities. For instance, Vertesi (Social Studies of Science 38:09-35, 2008) showed through a series of interviews including a "sketch mapping" phase, that London Tube Map seems to structure residents' spatial representation of their city. However, thorough quantitative research on this subject have not been carried out yet. Two experimental studies have been conducted to demonstrate how residents' representations of metropolitan areas closely resemble the schematic representations of their public transport networks. First, we show that residents of Greater Paris-public and private transport users alike-plot city landmarks in a layout more closely resembling that of the Parisian transit map than the geographical map. Next, we asked Greater Berlin, London and Paris residents to place landmarks of their cities on different map backgrounds. A similar procedure was followed for landmarks from an unknown city, after a dedicated learning phase. For known cities, the sketch maps produced were closer to transit maps than to the geographical ones, although less so if the test map background presented topographical elements (e.g., rivers, etc.). For learnt cities, participants' sketch maps were almost exclusively dependent on the map provided during the learning phase. These results suggest that familiarity with transit maps has a direct impact on the metric properties of spatial representation in memory, a phenomenon we propose to call the 'schema effect'.

Revealing the transmission mechanism and spatial spillover of carbon emission reduction caused by high-speed rail opening

In the context of China’s commitment to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, as well as its strategy to build a strong transportation country, it is of foremost importance to study the carbon emission reduction effect of the opening of high-speed rail (HSR). This paper innovatively introduces the frequency of HSR stops as an indicator of HSR operation, and uses a time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) model, a mediating effect model and a spatial DID model to assess the direct and indirect impact, transmission mechanism, and spatial spillover effects of the opening and operation of HSR on carbon emission reduction based on a panel of 279 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2017. We found that the opening and operation of HSR significantly reduced urban carbon emissions. The direct transmission mechanism analysis shows that the opening of HSR can reduce carbon emissions by replacing highway passenger traffic. Indirect mechanism analysis shows that the opening of HSR can reduce carbon emissions through technological effect, structural effect and opening effect. The test of spatial spillover effect shows that the opening of HSR can promote carbon emission reduction not only in node cities, but also in neighboring cities.

Visualization and Analysis of Transport Accessibility Changes Based on Time Cartograms

Visualization of the spatial distribution pattern of transport accessibility and its changes can be crucial for understanding and assessing the performance of transportation systems. Compared to traditional maps representing geographic space, time cartograms modify geographic locations and spatial relationships to suit travelling times and thereby emphasize time–distance relationships in time-space. This study aims to facilitate a better understanding of the evolution of the spatial distribution pattern of accessibility by presenting a novel visualization and analysis methodology based on time cartograms. This is achieved by combining a visual qualitative display with a quantitative indicator analysis from multiple perspectives to show transport accessibility changes. Two indicators, namely, the shortest railway travel time (STRT) and spatiotemporal con-version parameter (STCP), are proposed to measure accessibility changes. Our work consists of the construction of time cartograms, the analysis of indicators, and the use of multiple views to show changes in transportation accessibility from multiple perspectives. The methodology is applied on the railway data of Beijing and selected 226 cities in China and to analyze changes in railway accessibility in 1996, 2003, 2009 and 2016. The results show that the development of transportation technology has continuously shortened the travel time, the time-space is gradually compressed, However, the difference in transport accessibility is getting bigger and bigger because of the uneven transportation development speeds between the regions.

The Effect of High-Speed Rail on Cropland Abandonment in China

This study analyzed Chinese labor-force survey data to determine the relationship between cropland abandonment and high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure. A PSM-DID approach was employed to examine 2014 and 2016 data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey and estimate the impact of HSR, from which it was found that HSR accessibility promoted cropland abandonment in local farm households with a coefficient of 0.206, that is, HSR projects led to a 20.6% increase in area of cropland abandonment and these impacts were found to be greater in hilly areas and lower in plain areas. The results also suggested that HSR accessibility could have a “pull” effect, which resulted in rural labor force shifts to non-agricultural sectors in the local region. Countermeasures and policy suggestions are given to reduce cropland abandonment.

The Impact of COVID-19 on High-Speed Rail and Aviation Operations

Intercity transportation systems have experienced severe disruptions since the outbreak of COVID-19. However, it remains unclear how the operations of different systems were affected and whether the pandemic has influenced modal interaction. This paper provides an empirical assessment to address these questions using high-speed rail (HSR) and aviation in China as an example. The impact of COVID-19 on aviation and HSR operations was examined both temporally and spatially using a high-dimensional fixed-effect panel model. Using the big data with daily operational frequency for the period of January–June 2020, the study shows that the lockdown of Wuhan had varying effects on the operations of HSR and aviation. In addition, the correlation of operational services between HSR and aviation was found to vary both spatially and temporally during the pandemic. These research findings provide important implications for improving the adaptability of transportation systems and operational resilience.

Socioeconomic Benefits of the Shinkansen Network

High speed rail (HSR) networks have been an essential catalyst in stimulating and balancing regional economic growth that ultimately benefits the society as a whole. Previous studies have revealed that HSR services sustainably yield superior social values for people, especially for adults and those of working age. This has become an advantage of HSR networks over other forms of public transportation. The Shinkansen network in Japan is one of most successful HSR models. Its services bring significant social advantages to the communities it serves, such as shorter travel times and increased job opportunities. Nevertheless, the societal impact of HSR networks depends on many factors, and the benefits of HSR could also be overrated. The goal of this research is to measure the socioeconomic impacts of HSR on people of all genders and age groups. The outcomes could lead to more suitable development of HSR projects and policies. This study investigates data sets for Japanese social factors over 55 years in order to determine the impacts of HSR. The assessment model has been established using Python. It applies Pearson’s correlation (PCC) technique as its main methodology. This study broadly assesses social impacts on population dynamics, education, age dependency, job opportunities, and mortality rate using an unparalleled dataset spanning 55 years of social factors. The results exhibit that younger generations have the most benefits in terms of equal educational accessibility. However, the growth of the HSR network does not influence an increase in the employment rate or labour force numbers, resulting in little benefit to the workforce.

The Impact of High-Speed Railway on China’s Regional Economic Growth Based on the Perspective of Regional Heterogeneity of Quality of Place

Transport enables trade between people, which is essential for the development of civilizations. Transport is a crucial necessity for specialization, allowing production and consumption of products to occur at different locations. High-speed rail (HSR) allows the flow of people between regions, cities, countries. With rapid global development in HSR technology for passenger transportation, it plays a vital role in transportation systems. The improvement of the quality of cities with different emphasis will bring different economic development results. Therefore, exploring the impact of high-speed railways and quality of place on economic development is necessary. This paper takes the prefecture-level city with a high-speed railway opened in 2008–2013 as the research sample and takes other prefecture-level cities in the country as the control group. The study findings revealed that employment, investment in fixed assets, average wage, and higher education institute significantly affect China’s regional economic growth. Institute of higher education reflects the negative effect on the regional economic growth whereas the employment, investment in fixed assets, and average wage rate positively impact it. Based on the results, it can be concluded that China’s regional economy is significantly affected by its quality.

Research on the Influence of a High-Speed Railway on the Spatial Structure of the Western Urban Agglomeration Based on Fractal Theory—Taking the Chengdu–Chongqing Urban Agglomeration as an Example

By shortening the transportation time between cities, high-speed rail shortens the spatial distance between cities and exerts a far-reaching influence on urban agglomerations’ spatial structures. In order to explore the influence of high-speed rail on the spatial reconstruction of an urban agglomeration in western China, this paper employs fractal theory to compare and analyze the spatial structure evolution of the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration in western China before and after the opening of a high-speed railway. The results show that after the completion of the high-speed railway, the intercity accessibility is improved. The Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration’s spatial distribution shows a decreasing density from the central city to the surrounding areas. Furthermore, the urban system presents a trend of an agglomeration distribution. Therefore, strengthening the construction of high-speed rail channels between primary and medium-sized cities, as well as accelerating the construction of intercity railway networks and rapid transportation systems based on high-speed rail cities, would help develop urban agglomerations in western China.

The Impacts of High-speed Rail on Sustainable Economic Development: Evidence from the Central Part of China

To give full play to the role of high-speed rail (HSR) in promoting sustainable economic development, the models that can calculate and describe the impacts of HSR on the sustainable economy are required. However, little attention has been paid so far to building such models. To address this, the paper puts forward the definition of sustainable economic development, especially that of China. Based on the definition, the paper proposes the indicators of sustainable economic development for China from industry and labor force perspectives. Compared with the previous literature, these indicators take into account the behavior of enterprises and labor forces as individuals rather than as groups, which is more explanatory. HSR, as the main factor to improve the level of transportation technology and accessibility, is incorporated into the analytical framework. Then, we build decision-making behavior models of single enterprise and labor force under market equilibrium to get the relationship between HSR and indicators. Compared with the previous literature, the methods within the paper not only fully consider the interests of enterprises and labor forces, but also considers the interaction between industries and the trade of commodities in different cities/regions. The evidence from the central part of China shows that the model can effectively reveal the relationship between HSR and indicators. The paper gives new perspectives to study the relationship between HSR and sustainable economic development. Based on the findings herein, we offer recommendations for how HSR can promote sustainable economic development effectively.

Framing with Images

In policy analysis, the concept of framing has become an idea of good currency. In planning, framing means giving shape, not only in a figurative but also in a literal sense of the word. So, drawn images are used to support verbal statements of policy, or they directly express policies. In this paper I will first discuss framing. Then I will focus on images. Recognising the power of images as the glue holding policy together could all too easily lead to the acceptance of the urban designer's claim for preeminence in planning. This claim rests on the alleged creativity of designers and/or their unique ability to encapsulate in their designs the totality of urban life. Although such claims are rejected in this paper, the autonomy of urban design as a field of endeavour is nevertheless recognised. The issue arising is that of crossing frames between urban designers, planners, and their clients, the public. This is all the more urgent because urban design, like planning, is in the public domain.