Exploring impacts of the built environment on transit travel: Distance, time and mode choice, for urban villages in Shenzhen, China

Context-specific research are necessary to promote public transit by optimizing the built environment in the process of urban renewal. Using data of residential travel survey in Shenzhen, China in 2014, this paper investigated how built environment affected transit travel in urban villages where low-income group resided, and they are all tenants. Structural equations modelling was employed to express the effects of socio-economic, public transit service related and built environment variables on travel mode choice, travel time and distance, with control for residential self-selection. It is found that after considering the self-selection effect, the influence of density and transit availability on travel distance, travel time and transit mode choice in urban villages are still significant. For urban villages, transit availability matters greatest for transit promotion, but the negative effect of density on transit mode choice and none effect of mixed land use are unusual as previous findings. This is partly because of relatively low income, low car ownership, and less elastic travel demand of tenants living in urban villages. Our findings provide some insights into transit-oriented urban renewal that when transforming urban villages, emphasis should be put on enhancement of transit availability, and the mixed land use could be put in the last consideration when there is limited time and funds.