Research On The Utility Efficiency Of The Urban Rail Transit

Since implement of the reform and opening-up policy,China has made remarkable achievements on infrastructure construction in the process of urbanization.The rate of urbanization in China was about 18%,however,the rate has already reached 56.1% by the end of 2015.Nowadays,rapid urbanization has promoted the development of economy and improved quality of life in China,whereas,it has brought huge pressure on urban environment.Urban transportation,as an important link in the process of urban development,has caused a series of unsustainable problems,such as energy consumpt io n,air pollution,and shortage of land resource in many mega cities of China.Furthermore,residents in many mega cities have entered the era of private car with the gradual improvement of residential life quality and personal income.Therefore,due to the increasing number of private cars and heavy load of urban roads,the contradictio n between urban road traffic and limited traffic capacity of urban roads has been gradually aggravated,which leads to severe traffic congestion in many mega cities.Consequently,urban rail transit has been considered as one of the most effective methods to tackle urban traffic congestion,improve service quality of urban public transportation,and satisfy the demand for urban residential transportation.As of the end of 2015,China has already built and operated 116 lines of urban rail transit among 26 cities.The total length of urban rail transit in operation has already reached to 3,612 kilometer,which has remained an international advanced level.However,in reality,there exists a huge difference on passenger flow volume between different lines of urban rail transit.This paper shows that urban rail transit system has remained a relatively low level on contribution rate of total urban transportation compared with the current situation of urban rail transit among foreign developed countries.Urban rail transit has still remained relatively lower load in operation in the majority of cities in China.Thus,it can markedly reduce fossil energy consumption and carbon emission in the process of urban resident transit and effective ly relieve urban transportation congestion and further promote coordinated development of economy,society,and environment.Meanwhile,it could facilita te the sustainab le development and amplify the advantage of urban rail transit in order to avoid resource waste of labor power,materials,and finance.Therefore,utility efficiency of urban rail transit system has been chosen as the research objective.And research contents of the paper have been included as follows.Firstly,the connotation of utility efficiency of urban rail transit have been defined according to relevant theoretical literature review based on the theory of infrastruc t ure construction of urban rail transit,the consumption theory of urban resident,and the theory of residential travel behavior.Then,a theoretical framework on utility efficiency of urban rail transit has been established,which including three stage analysis.Secondly,according to the evaluation mode of utility efficiency of urban rail transit,current status of utility efficiency of urban rail transit have been identified and analyzed in 26 cities of China by using relevant collected research data.Thirdly,a list of influencing factors on utility efficiency of urban rail transit has been summarized from the view of selection of urban residential travel behavior.Key influencing factors have been identified by using questionnaire investigation,factor analytic method,and structural equation model,which has taken the case of urban rail transit system in Chongqing as the research example.Finally,a muti-logit model of sequencing intention on travel choice of urban rail transit in Chongqing has been established according to the identified key influenc ing factors.Meanwhile,the intention change on travel choice of urban rail transit in Chongqing have been analyzed in different scenario by setting different parameters.Then,effective policy suggestions have been proposed to improve utility efficiency of urban rail transit in Chongqing from the view of promoting residential desire on urban rail transit according to the identified key impact factors.The paper has concentrated on the critical issue on utility efficiency of urban rail transit.A theoretical framework of utility efficiency on urban rail transit has been established.The current status of utility efficiency on urban rail transit in 26 cities of China has been evaluated and analyzed.The driving factors and barrier factors influencing utility efficiency on urban rail transit have been identified.Relevant effective policy suggestions have been made to promote the utility efficiency on urban rail transit.The result of this study could give a reference to enrich the research field on urban rail transit,and provide useful guidance on operation management of urban rail transit in China.