ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1588004
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Strategies for Urban Public Health Resilience in Crisis SituationsView all 14 articles
The effect of urban-rail station area coverage on city blocks' epidemic transmission: the case of the rail-supportive city of Beijing, China
Provisionally accepted
Weitao Zhang*
Jingwei Li- Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: From coronavirus disease 2019 to other human-to-human infectious diseases, the integrative development of rail transport and land use, which is dominated by the theory of the transport-land use feedback cycle, concentrates citizens' large-scale flow and gathering within the rail station areas (RSAs). This makes RSAs the potential "focal point" of epidemic spread in cities. This study examined the effect of RSA coverage on epidemic transmission in railsupportive city blocks and further revealed the internal mechanism and potential factors behind the surface effect.A quantitative empirical analysis was conducted using a typical COVID-19 case in Beijing, China, in 2020, and the statistical analysis method of "a mediating model with a moderating effect" was used, resulting in the following multilayered outcomes: (1) The higher the coverage, the lower the risk, overall, which is different from the general empiricism-based judgment.(2) Behind the total effect, RSA coverage does not directly affect epidemic transmission in blocks, as expected because of the focal point effect on epidemic occurrence possibility. Instead, RSA coverage has a mediating effect on epidemic vulnerability by affecting the residential population size of blocks.(3) There is a strengthening effect on RSA coverage affecting the population size as RSA transport and service levels increase.These findings have several implications. First, the implementation of contemporary local nonpharmaceutical interventions can be considered to reduce the focal point effect of RSAs and decrease the infectious sensitivity of the block population. Second, the transport-land use integration plays a key role behind the mediating and moderating effects by shaping resident land use and population distribution. Third, the blocks' primary hospitals, advanced hospitals, municipal roads, and elastic facilities probably provide potential support in reducing blocks' epidemic risk.
Keywords: urban rail, station area coverage, City block, Epidemic transmission, Mediating effect, Moderating effect
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 07 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weitao Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.