The Impact of HSR on Same-Day Intercity Mobility: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region
Published:
One objective of China’s High-speed rail (HSR) development is to promote regional cohesion, which can be reflected by the flow of people between city pairs. As a fast-speed intercity transport mode, same-day intercity mobility has been regarded as an essential measurement for regional cohesion and transport integration. The reduced time by HSR has redefined the business and commute trips which highlights time efficiency. Due to the difficulty in obtaining large samples of data for such trips, we adopted mobile phone data to detect and analyze the spatial distribution and travel behaviour characteristics of same-day return travellers. The efficiency analysis measured by total travel time between city pairs indicates that HSR is less competitive with cars within 300 km for same-day return trips. The variance in HSR passengers’ travel time over the same distances could be due to no direct services and the time required for access/egress. Using a 20-week mobile phone data, we adopted a rule-based method for detecting intercity travellers based on their temporal and spatial geographic locations. Results showed that most travellers travelled within 3–3.5 h, and few conducted a same-day return trip regularly. GDP, service frequency, and distance between origin and destination have been examined to explain the mobility of same-day return travel. The findings of our paper are expected to improve our understanding of same-day return travel behaviour and promote HSR travel for efficient round trips.
Citation: Haixiao Pan, Ya Gao*, Khandker Nurul Habib. 2023. "The Impact of HSR on Same-Day Intercity Mobility: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region." In Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics , Cham, 61-80.