The Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Chinese Civil Vehicles’ Possession in the Context of Rapid Economic Development from 1996 to 2015

The possession of civil vehicles in a country or a region often reflects its usage of cars. The purpose of this study is to better understand the regional diversity of civil vehicles’ possession in multiple geographic scales (national, regional, provincial). We also aim to investigate the impact of economic levels on the possession of civil vehicles through the lens of Mk test, Theil index, principal component analysis and panel data models. Results show that the possession quantity of civil vehicles in China changed significantly, with a slow growth in 1996–2005 and a rapid growth in 2006–2015. During 1996–2015, the possession quantity of civil vehicles revealed a spatial inequality. The positive impact of economic development on the possession of civil vehicles is gradually decreasing from east to west and from coastal to inland. From 2000 to 2015, disparities in the spatial distribution of civil vehicles showed a trend of ‘increasing slightly in the first place then decreasing continuously,’ during 2000–2005, within-regional inequalities are greater than between-regional inequalities. The inequalities between provinces in the northern coastal areas (NC) were the main reasons for within-regional inequalities. Since 2006, between-regional inequalities have been greater than within-regional inequalities. The level of economic development has a significant positive impact on the possession of civil vehicles; the spatio-temporal patterns of civil vehicles in most areas are in line with economic development trends.