How Does City Size Affect the Cost of Household Travel? Evidence from an Urban Household Survey in China

Abstract

Travel costs are critical to the sustainable development of cities. This paper used Urban Household Survey (UHS) data from 2002 to 2014 and constructed a comprehensive city-size index from the perspectives of population and urban space to empirically test the impact of city size on the cost of household travel. The main results are as follows: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between city size and the cost of household travel. The internal mechanism is that city size affects the cost of household travel by increasing spatial distance and traffic congestion. (2) Increasing public transportation and per capita road area can restrain the positive impact of city size on the cost of household travel; moreover, the restraining effect of public transportation is stronger than that of per capita road area. (3) The impact of city size on the cost of household travel for sub-provincial cities is smaller than that for ordinary prefecture-level cities; in addition, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between city size and the cost of household travel. This paper deepens the understanding of the impact of city size on travel costs, providing research support for the healthy development of cities in China.

Cultural factors and senior tourism: Evidence from the Chinese context

“…Thus, the demand for older population tourism is strong. Therefore, with increased ageing, the older population tourism industry has begun to be favored by increasing numbers of the older population ( Li and Li, 2022 ). Older population tourism needs not only the intelligent development of enterprises but also the strong support of local governments.…”

“…Due to rapid economic development ( Figure 1 ), great changes have taken place in China over the past few decades. Urbanization has increased rapidly, with the number of cities increasing from 193 in 1978 to 687 in 2020 ( Li and Li, 2022 ). Further, the proportion of the urban population increased from 26.44% in 1990 to 63.89% in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 1.09%.…”