Analysis on the relationship between accessibility of intercity rail transit and urban economic development

Abstract

As the backbone of regional transportation development, intercity rail transit plays an important role in guiding and driving the economic integration development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). This paper analyzes and summarizes the variables that measure the level of intercity rail transit and economic development, besides, the paper puts forward the calculation method of intercity rail transit accessibility and economic development level. Furthermore, it constructs the coupling coordination degree model, quantitatively evaluates the correlation between the accessibility of intercity rail transit and the level of economic development by using difference-in-difference (DID) model. Finally, by taking 11 cities in GBA as examples, the paper further studies the impact of intercity rail transit accessibility on urban economy in different years. The results show that intercity rail transit has significant positive benefits on urban economy, and the elastic coefficient is 0.012 8. The more the development of transportation and economy is coordinated, the more obvious the positive impact of intercity railway operation is brought by the opening of the intercity railway. This proposed method can provide theoretical and practical guidance for the overall coordinated development of the region.

Keywords

• transportation engineering
• economic development
• guangdong-hong kong-macao greater bay area (gba)
• accessibility
• intercity rail transit
• difference-in-difference model
• coupling coordination degree