Title: Accessibility to Metro of Affordable and Commercial Housing Complexes in Shanghai
Description: This thesis has three research questions. The first one is whether Affordable Housing Planning and Management Regulation (“the regulation”) in 2008 has been followed that affordable housing should be built within a 15-minute walk from metro stations. The second question is whether there are significant differences between affordable and commercial housing complexes in metro accessibility. The third question is whether housing type is an important factor in accessibility. This study is based on a mixed-method research design: statistical, quantitative analysis and combined with qualitative analysis of observations. The results are then used to make policy suggestions towards equitable and adaptive locations of affordable housing and metro stations. The study shows that most affordable housing complexes have not followed the regulation in 2008 because most of them were not built within a 15-minute walk from metro stations. Additionally, commercial housing complexes have better accessibility to metro than affordable ones in two aspects: the level of convenience from a certain residential complex to surrounding metro stations, and the level of convenience from surrounding metro stations to points of interest (POI).

Although housing price and distance to city center are also important, housing type is a more significant factor in metro accessibility. The study recommends the planning department to combine transportation and affordable housing planning, create more POI in suburban areas, and connect suburban areas with metro.