Transit oriented development under the influence of urban air mobility: A public transit-based vertiport siting method

Authors

• Renwei Liu
• Haishan Xia
• Lu Li
• Qi Li
• Sitong Liu

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2026

Subject Area

infrastructure - station, land use - planning, land use - transit oriented development, place - asia, place - urban

Keywords

public transit stations, urban air mobility (UAM), transit-oriented development (TOD)

Abstract

The emergence of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology has enabled large-scale implementation of urban air mobility (UAM) within cities. This study proposes a vertiport-siting optimization method based on public transit stations to better utilize existing urban resources for UAM development. The study also maximizes the combined strengths of UAM's flexibility and efficiency with the high-capacity characteristics of traditional transit systems, addressing future mobility demands that feature both decentralization and urban agglomeration. The proposed method minimizes travel costs between public transit stations and vertiport locations while incorporating population density as a weighting factor to enhance the objective function. Two siting strategies were compared regarding travel costs and spatial service coverage. Using Shenzhen's Bao'an District as a case study, results indicate that the population-weighted optimization approach reduces distance-based travel costs by 12.6 % and improves coverage in core functional zones by approximately 20 %, significantly enhancing spatial service efficiency. This study diverges from traditional infrastructure-led siting approaches by emphasizing the foundational role of public transit systems in shaping UAM networks. It introduces a three-dimensional urban planning concept that integrates transit-oriented development (TOD) with UAM, offering a new pathway for reshaping urban spatial structures and improving spatial efficiency in future cities.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Journal of Air Transport Management Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09696997

Recommended Citation

Liu, R., Xia, H., Li, L., Li, Q., & Liu, S. (2026). Transit oriented development under the influence of urban air mobility: A public transit-based vertiport siting method. Journal of Air Transport Management, 133, 102962.