Estimating Distance Equivalence for Sustainable Mobility Management: Evidence from China’s “Stay-in-Place” Policy

Youhai Lu, Peixue Liu (), Min Zhuang and Yihan Cao
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Youhai Lu: College of Economics and Mnagement, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Peixue Liu: School of Business Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing 210023, China
Min Zhuang: School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Yihan Cao: Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-17

Abstract: Travel policies during crises strongly reshape mobility patterns, raising the challenge of protecting public health while minimizing socio-economic disruption—an essential concern for sustainable development. Most evaluations quantify changes in travel volume, which hampers cross-city comparison and policy monitoring. This study proposes a distance-based sustainability metric—distance equivalence (DE)—that translates policy-induced mobility frictions into interpretable “added distance” within a gravity framework, enabling consistent measurement and monitoring of policy impacts. Using inter-city flows for 358 Chinese cities during the Stay-in-Place for Lunar New Year (SIP) guidance, we map DE, test spatial dependence (Moran’s I; LISA), and apply fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify city-level configurations associated with high DE. DE exhibits significant spatial clustering, concentrating east of the Hu line, where dense urban networks amplify advisory checks. Three recurrent configurations—combining case counts, health-care capacity (hospital beds), and average inter-city distance—are linked to high DE. As a sustainability assessment tool, DE supports adaptive management, region-differentiated strategies, and ex-ante risk assessment for governments, public-health authorities, and transport agencies. The framework generalizes to short-term mobility interventions under crisis conditions, advancing the quantification of policy impacts on sustainable mobility and urban resilience.

Keywords: distance equivalence; sustainable mobility; crisis management; policy evaluation; urban resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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