Accessibility of Healthcare Resources to Public Housing in Shenzhen, China: Indirect Map Service and Optimized Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Method

Abstract

<p>In China, the equal accessibility of social infrastructure, especially public housing and healthcare, has become a prominent concern in solving the problems of rapid but uneven growth-oriented urbanization in the post-reform era. However, few studies have focused on the accessibility of various healthcare resources to different types of public housing using different transport modes. Utilizing Internet map services, this study first calculated the travel time from talent, economically affordable, and public rental housing to hospitals using three transport modes-walking, public transport, and driving-in Shenzhen, China. Subsequently, the optimized two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA) was employed to comprehensively evaluate the accessibility of healthcare resources to public housing and explore differences in healthcare accessibility among different populations. The results reveal that: (1) Public housing is located far away from healthcare resources, with 15% of public housing unable to access AAA hospitals within 30 minutes by car, and only 10% able to access ordinary hospitals within 15 minutes. (2) Accessibility of healthcare resources to public housing exhibits spatial heterogeneity, gradually declining from special to non-special economic zones. (3) Talent housing experiences the best accessibility, followed by affordable and public rental housing. (4) Public transportation and walking exhibit greater spatial variation in accessibility than driving. Theoretically, the current public housing accessibility in Shenzhen reflects the common problems of public housing accessibility throughout the country. In the process of promoting the equal accessibility of basic public services, focus on its accessibility should be emphasized. This study proposes an optimized 2SFCA by introducing a Gaussian distance decay function, establishing a multilevel search radius, considering supply and demand-side competition effects, and using real-time traffic big data. Our methodological framework simultaneously considers differences among various types of public housing, hospitals with different service capacities, and diverse travel modes. This provides a new research perspective for a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the equal accessibility of basic public services.</p>

基于互联网地图服务测算人才住房、经济适用房、公共租赁房在步行、公共交通和驾车3种出行方式下到达不同等级医院的通勤时间，通过引入高斯距离衰减函数、设立多级搜索半径、考虑供给和需求方竞争效应并利用实时交通大数据改进两步移动搜索法，对深圳市公共住房居民就医可达性进行多维度评价。研究发现：1）紧急就医情境下15%公共住房点驾车30 min内不可抵达三甲医院，普通就医情境下仅10%公共住房点实现15 min就医目标；2）可达性由老经济特区向非经济特区逐渐衰减；3）人才住房可达性最优，其次是经济适用房，最后是公共租赁房；4）公共交通和步行相比于驾车模式下的可达性空间分异更显著。