Structural Integration and Optimization: New Models of Metropolitan Station Distribution Planning—A Case Study of Beijing

Traffic congestion has become a vital issue for improvement in the quality of living in the largest cities. Transit station distribution has a great impact on traffic flows in a city. This paper takes Beijing as a case to analyze the causes of traffic congestion in terms of station distribution, transportation network and traffic flow. As a conclusion, it proposes a new mode of metropolitan transport network planning by integrating multiple transportation modes and optimizing regional distribution of stations. It plans to create three integrated transport hubs which integrate urban railways stations, long-distance bus stations with inner city bus stations. The hubs are evenly distributed on the east, north and south Sixth Ring of Beijing. One of advantages of the new mode is that suburb-to-center traffic flow could be reduced, and thus traffic congestion would be relieved. This paper also introduces a universal pattern of station distribution in big cities.