Impacts of the National Trunk Highway System on accessibility in China

Abstract Recently, China has launched a major programme of motorway construction – the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS). The present study analyses the impacts of this highway development programme on the pattern of accessibility gradients, trying to draw implications for regional growth. Obviously, this programme will bring about substantial improvements in accessibility across the nation. There is evidence, however, that highway investment exhibits diminishing returns over time. Greater improvements in the nodal accessibility of the major coastal cities, as compared with cities in interior and periphery provinces, in the initial stage of the highway development programme are found. But as time progresses, the NTHS will bring about more balanced development in the spatial sense.

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