The Changes in Disparity of Urban Transportation Development Level Rank in China
中国城市交通运输发展水平等级差异变动特征

This paper selects the statistics of 183 cities in China, in the years of 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003. We adopt the Natural Breaks with Arcmap software to divide these cities into five ranks according to their urban transportation development levels, and use the SPSS to analyse the development level rank disparity change which characterizes the spindle structure-the plus number of the cities which are better and worse than the average level is less than 32% of the total. Meanwhile, more than 68% of the cities' transportation development levels are close to the average one. Cities with higher urban transportation development level than the average present the "centralized-decentralized-decentralized-centralized" characteristics in provincial spatial distribution, while those with lower level than the average present the decentralized and irregular spatial pattern. The disparity of the urban transportation development level rank in China appears a U-shaped changing pattern-it decreased in 1991-1995, increased in 1995-1999, and then decreased in 1999-2003 again, but the fluctuation range was not great in each period. Cities with urban transportation development level going up spatially centralized in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Liaoning, while those with degressive development level spatially are centralized in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shaanxi, Hubei and Hunan. Applying to the relative analysis it can be found that, in China, there exists a significant positive correlation betweent the development levels of urban transportation and economy. At the same time, the economic structure is relevant to the urban transportation development level. In 1991-2003, the urban transportation development level exhibited a distinct correlation with the gross industrial output value per capita at 0.01 level, and the correlation coefficient took on an ascending trand.