Urbanization inequality: evidence from vehicle ownership in Chinese cities

Linlin Duan, Lulu Song (), Wanjun Wang, Xiaomei Jian, Reinout Heijungs and Wei-Qiang Chen ()
Additional contact information
Linlin Duan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lulu Song: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wanjun Wang: Henan University
Xiaomei Jian: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Reinout Heijungs: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Wei-Qiang Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Palgrave Communications, 2024, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Unequal outcomes resulting from urbanization can pose a significant challenge to sustainable development. Vehicles are an important urbanization dimension as a critical component of urban infrastructure by providing mobility and accessibility to social services. China’s vehicle ownership (referred to as in-use vehicle stocks) has been growing quickly since 2000, but its per capita stocks are still much lower than that in developed economies. This raises the question of whether and when China’s vehicle stocks will reach a peak level close to that in the developed countries. By analyzing vehicle stocks in 283 Chinese cities during 2001–2018, we have the following findings: (1) vehicle stocks are predominantly distributed in northern and eastern coastal cities and provincial capital cities; (2) inequality in vehicle ownership rates between cities shows a declining trend at both national and region scales; (3) the growth of vehicle ownership rates follows an S-shape curve and most cities are still at the early stage of motorization; (4) China is likely to have a lower saturation level of vehicle ownership rate. These results could help to accurately forecast future vehicle demand in China, estimate the resulting environmental impacts, and explore strategies to achieve carbon neutrality in transportation.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03173-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03173-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03173-4

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().