How does the built environment affect transit use under different urban village renewal strategies?

Authorities often adopt rehabilitation or redevelopment strategies to enhance the built environment (BE) of urban villages to address issues like traffic congestion, pollution, and public security. There is a lack of investigation into the specific impacts of the built environment on bus usage in urban villages with different renewal strategies. We utilized data from the 2018 Zhuhai resident survey and employed the XGB-SHAP model to examine the non-linear relationship and threshold effects of the BE on transit usage in urban villages undergoing rehabilitation or redevelopment. The finding indicated that travel time and distance are the most influential factors, while the density of bus stops and employment density have the greatest impact among the BE variables. The BE variables exhibit distinct nonlinear characteristics and display threshold effects, with significant difference in their performance. Our empirical evidence and policy implications provide valuable insights for promoting public transit usage in urban villages.