Assessing China's Megaregional Mobility in a Comparative Context

Improved mobility and accessibility for passengers and goods provide competitive advantages for megaregions. This article describes the trends in mobility in China's top three megaregions—the Capital Economic Zone, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta—and how megaregional planning has led to solutions to the challenges of mobility. China's experience is compared with trends in megaregions in the United States and the European Union. This comparative context confirms that existing trends in China's regional mobility carry severe energy and environmental challenges and that China's movement toward rail, particularly high-speed rail, provides a better chance to mitigate congestion and pollution problems.