.:: Green Transportation :: Subways ::
Exploring how subways affect people's travel mode choice and air pollution

Examining Two Cities
Public transit is viewed as a potential means to mitigate traffic
congestion and its resulting air pollution and health consequences.
BEIJING
Beijing, one of China's most motorized cities, experienced an average annualincrease of 11.8% in the number of motor vehicles from 2000-2010.
How will the development of subways affect automobility (car ownership and usage) of residents?
CHANGSHA
Recently, Changsha experienced rapid increases in vehicle ownership, with 1.29 million privately-owned vehicles in 2014, resulting in severe traffic congestion and air pollution.
Are areas close to subway services experiencing more improvement in air quality than areas further away from subway lines within the same city?
Beijing ::Subways + Car Ownership
We examine the impact of subway station proximity on urban residents’ car ownership and fuel consumption.
A 2009 household survey (826 households) conducted by Tsinghua University in Beijing reveals that car ownership rate in the sample is 47%. We also see that households living closer to a subway station are less likely to own a car.


Changsha :: Subways + Air Quality
We examine the effect of the city’s first subway line (Line No. 2; opened April 2014) on local air pollution.

Using hourly air quality data (10 monitoring stations) from Jan 2013 to April 2015, we compared the difference in air quality pre- and post opening of Changsha's subway Line No.2.
The opening of the subway line substantially reduced nearby CO emissions by 18.1% compared to areas further away

Team
Siqi Zheng
MIT China Future City Lab, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Center for Real Estate
Xiaonan Zhang
Tsinghua University
Weizeng Sun
Central University of Finance and Economics
Jianghao Wang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yingjie Zhang
Beijing Forestry University
Cong Sun
Shanghai University of Economics and Finance
Rui Wang
Johns Hopkins University, UCLA
Publications
Siqi Zheng, Xiaonan Zhang, Weizeng Sun and Jianghao Wang. “The effect of a new subway line on local air quality: A case study in Changsha”, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. 2018.
Yingjie Zhang, Siqi Zheng, Cong Sun and Rui Wang. “Does Subway Proximity Discourage Automobility? Evidence from Beijing”, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. 2017, 52: 506-517.