Examining the Effects of Built Environments and Individual Characteristics on Commuting Time under Spatial Heterogeneity: An Empirical Study in China Using HLM

Mei Zhang, Jia Tang () and Jun Gao
Additional contact information
Mei Zhang: School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
Jia Tang: School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
Jun Gao: School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: A large number of studies have provided evidence regarding the factors that influence commuting time. However, few studies have explored such effects in the context of considering spatial heterogeneity across cities, which limits the generalizability of the findings. This study addresses this gap by utilizing a dataset of 113 cities in China across the years 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. A two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) was developed to explore the combined effects of city-level and individual-level factors on commuting time by constructing a nested “city-individual” relationship. The results show that (1) built environments at the city level significantly impact commuting time; (2) a non-linear association between population density and commuting time (U-shaped relationship) was identified, as well as between the number of buses and commuting time (inverted U-shaped relationship); (3) the urban construction land area and road area per capita exert negative effects on commuting time; (4) the impacts of individuals’ jobs–housing balance, travel allowances, and education on commuting time vary across cities. These findings might contribute to optimizing the design of a built environment, addressing the challenge posed by longer commuting times, and providing a better understanding of the effects of individuals’ characteristics on commuting time while considering the inherent differences across cities.

Keywords: commuting time; urban built environment; spatial heterogeneity; HLM; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/8/1596/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/8/1596/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:8:p:1596-:d:1216471

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().