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Urban Transport and Accessibility

Urban Transport and Accessibility is a research topic within Transportation. Science Explorer counts 51k research works in it since 1954. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the influence of the built environment on active travel, focusing on factors such as neighborhood walkability, accessibility, and environmental correlates. It delves into the impact of urban design, transportation infrastructure, and health impact assessments on promoting physical activity through active modes of travel.

  • Built Environment
  • Active Travel
  • Physical Activity
  • Transportation
  • Urban Design
  • Health Impact Assessment
  • Bike Sharing
  • Neighborhood Walkability
  • Accessibility
  • Environmental Correlates
Research works
51k
fractional, since 1954
In the world top 10%
5.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+22%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now

Which countries lead Urban Transport and Accessibility research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4k and 2.4k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4k works
  2. 2 United States 2.4k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 786 works
  4. 4 India 624 works
  5. 5 Canada 562 works
  6. 6 Australia 544 works
  7. 7 Germany 477 works
  8. 8 Japan 466 works
  9. 9 Brazil 425 works
  10. 10 Spain 386 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 37.6%United States: 22.5%United Kingdom: 7.3%India: 5.8%6 others listed: 26.7%38%largest
China4,023 · 37.6%United States2,411 · 22.5%United Kingdom786 · 7.3%India624 · 5.8%6 others listed2,861 · 26.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Urban Transport and Accessibility research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Urban Transport and Accessibility research, followed by Tongji University and Southeast University.

Who are the leading researchers in Urban Transport and Accessibility?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban Transport and Accessibility include Simon Iain Hay, Theo Vos and George Davey Smith.

  1. 1 Simon Iain Hay United States 452k citations
  2. 2 Theo Vos United States 439k citations
  3. 3 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  4. 4 Ali H. Mokdad United States 429k citations
  5. 5 Walter Churchill Willett United States 411k citations
  6. 6 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  7. 7 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
  8. 8 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  9. 9 Farshad Farzadfar Iran 298k citations
  10. 10 Salim Yusuf Canada 294k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Urban Transport and Accessibility?

The most cited paper in Urban Transport and Accessibility is "Travel and the Built Environment" (Reid Ewing, Robert Cervero, 2010), with 5,353 citations. Next come "The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants" (4,843) and "Travel demand and the 3Ds: Density, diversity, and design" (4,576).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Travel and the Built Environment Reid Ewing, Robert Cervero · Journal of the American Planning Association 13 May 2010 5,353
2 The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants Neil E. Klepeis, William C. Nelson, Wayne R. Ott et al. · Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Open access Jul 2001 4,843
3 Travel demand and the 3Ds: Density, diversity, and design Robert Cervero, Kara Maria Kockelman · Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment Sep 1997 4,576
4 Correlates of physical activity: why are some people physically active and others not? Adrian Ernest Bauman, Rodrigo Siqueira Reis, James F. Sallis et al. · The Lancet Jul 2012 4,233
5 AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO CREATING ACTIVE LIVING COMMUNITIES James F. Sallis, Robert Cervero, William L. Ascher et al. · Annual Review of Public Health Review 30 Sep 2005 3,365
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Urban Transport and Accessibility research done?

The largest centres of Urban Transport and Accessibility research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Champs-sur-Marne, Kumasi and Arlington.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 826 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 325 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 294 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 221 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 204 works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 199 works
  7. 7 Hong KongChina 160 works
  8. 8 TokyoJapan 159 works
  9. 9 MelbourneAustralia 153 works
  10. 10 SeoulSouth Korea 145 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Champs-sur-MarneFR · 48.5 works13×
  2. KumasiGH · 27.4 works6.9×
  3. ArlingtonUS · 20.1 works6.2×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban Transport and Accessibility than the world average.

See Urban Transport and Accessibility on the map

Where is the best place to study Urban Transport and Accessibility?

Among universities, judged by research, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong and Peking University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 21.82%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Chinese University o…University of Hong K…Wuhan UniversityPeking University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Chinese University of Hong KongChina 82.433.2%3.8×39 +44.8%
2University of Hong KongChina 78.625.3%5.3×69 +15.4%
3Peking UniversityChina 73.019.7%3.2×92 +71.4%
4Wuhan UniversityChina 69.822.0%3.4×68 +34.2%
5Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 69.421.0%4.8×58 +2.2%
6Tongji UniversityChina 67.916.1%5.1×110 +32.4%
7Chongqing UniversityChina 67.525.4%2.7×41 +97.0%
8Southeast UniversityChina 65.414.1%5.0×105 +12.5%
9Beijing Normal UniversityChina 65.317.5%4.5×51 +85.3%
10Tsinghua UniversityChina 65.123.9%1.7×55 +23.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Urban Transport and Accessibility, country by country

Is Urban Transport and Accessibility research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 22% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022. The fastest-growing topics are Urban Transport and Accessibility.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Urban Transport and Accessibility as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.067% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%Urban Transport and Accessibility0.064% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Urban Transport and Accessibility over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Urban Transport and Accessibility10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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