Transport Demand Management Policy Integration in Chinese Cities: A Proposed Analysis of Its Effects

Abstract

Transport demand management (TDM) measures are widely regarded as essential tools to deal with traffic issues. Their effectiveness has been under scrutiny. Packaging of TDM measures has recently received much attention from researchers and governments because it can achieve more complex policy goals and resolve the negative effects of single TDM measures. Many studies have examined the concept of policy packaging, the ideal packaging process, and potential barriers at the theoretical level. However, the way TDM packaging as a concept works in a real-world context has received little attention. Additionally, there is little methodology to analyse its characteristics from a dynamic and historical perspective. Therefore, this study provides a methodology for analysing TDM packaging in four dimensions (i.e., density, classification, interaction, and time). These dimensions respectively reveal how many and what kind of TDM measures have been implemented, how they interact in a package, and how these characteristics change over time. We examine this methodology through comparative case studies based on policy document analysis in two Chinese cities, Dalian and Shenzhen, both of which adopt a large number of TDM measures. The results show that this methodology successfully reveals the characteristics of case cities: both tend to put more TDM measures into the transport policy package to deal with traffic issues, but the package in Shenzhen is more integrative than that in Dalian. We also find that with the integration of packaging increasing, transport systems are becoming more sustainable, and Shenzhen performs better in this regard than Dalian. This methodology can be used to analyse policy packaging in broader areas and to examine its influence on transport systems in more case studies in future research.