Predicting the impact of a large urban railpark on non-motorized travel in its environs through the street network–a study on Beijing-Zhangjiakou Rail Park in China

Large urban rail parks are important linear public facilities in cities, which would have a huge impact on non-motorized travel in urban areas along the route. It will be of great significance for the future urban planning of the areas if the impact can be quantified and perceived. Taking the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Rail Park (BZRP), an important urban project being implemented in China, as an example, the paper conducts predictive research through quantitative methods, answering two questions: What impact will the park have on urban non-motorized travel? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different street network schemes? Specifically, this paper conducts a comparative study from the perspective of the street network, predicts different street network schemes, and analyzes the centrality, through-movement potential, and intelligibility of the surrounding street network before and after the completion of the park at different scales through space syntax and a multilevel approach. The results indicate that the park will eliminate the railway fragmentation, and the areas along the park are expected to become new urban centers. However, the optimization of the street network has a marginal diminishing effect. The park will have a more positive impact on walking travel than cycling travel. Finally, by comparing different schemes, it was found that different park sections have different suitable schemes for construction, and the high-density street network scheme only has the best results in certain sections.