SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF URBAN TRAFFIC
AND ITS CATEGORIES
Wenchao Long and Juanqiong Gou
School of Ecnomics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Haidian District, Beijing 100044, China
Keywords: Urban traffic, Social attributes, Categories, Topic word list.
Abstract: Urban traffic problems are increasingly serious. At present, many domestic and foreign research facilities
are dedicated to traffic engineering, traffic behaviour, traffic psychology and other areas, and there are many
achievements. However, researches on social perspective are rare. This paper treated urban traffic problems
from the social point, discussed the significance of social attributes of urban traffic, and mainly explored
content and the division of social attributes of urban traffic. In addition, the paper made suggestions on the
development of topic word list of social attributes of urban traffic.
1 THE SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF
URBAN TRAFFIC
Traffic has always been there and in-depth study on
traffic occurred in the 19th century to 20th century.
The studies on traffic distribute in industrial theory,
economics, urban studies, ecology, geography and
environmental science. As viewed from the
academic research, only engineering, management,
economics and other scientific phenomena on the
traffic study has been carried out in-depth; from the
perspective of education, professionals in the field of
traffic are essentially cultivated by the construction,
locomotive manufacturing, transportation and
information and communication disciplines. This
structure of traffic study and the separation of
sociology are not commensurate with the social
attributes social status and social relations of traffic.
Traffic study based on that is difficult to reflect the
common mechanism of the relationship between
various elements in the dynamic conditions under
the human-activities-centered system dynamics.
As viewed from the development of traffic
disciplines, transportation system has been studied
as artificial systems which providing transport
services as products and aims to maximize the
efficiency of the existing road system, and "protect
the safety, increase efficiency, improve the
environment and conserve energy”. City traffic
people commonly referred to is the one that built on
the basis of its sound operation. Not the purpose of
urban traffic vehicles move, but to achieve
movement of people and things. Traffic engineering
is mostly people-oriented and tries to meet needs of
the community. On the other hand, studies on one
particular social attributes has been a long time
when viewed from the development of traffic
disciplines. Legal, environmental, and folk customs
studies of the city traffic are performance that social
attributes of city traffic are increasing accepted by
specialists and scholars. As city traffic is concerned,
these subjects generally ignored the social
characteristics of the traffic and systemic features of
urban facilities, limiting the improvement of urban
traffic and the improvement of urban residents’
satisfaction in life. View was expressed that traffic
sociology related to sociology, traffic management,
traffic engineering and transportation economics is
an important field of traffic and sociology.
Zhongyuan Gu who is a sociologist mentioned in his
article: traffic sociology follows social properties of
city traffic and history of functions and studies
traffic problems with a view of society as a whole
based on multiple social attributes and functions of
traffic. The purpose of this subject is to seek the
relationship between social factors and traffic, and
the actual purpose is the application of these laws to
promote virtuous circle of traffic and various
elements in social life to coordinate and resolve all
kinds traffic problems in order to make our traffic
function better. The development of transportation-
related disciplines especially the emergence of
581
Long W. and Gou J..
SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF URBAN TRAFFIC AND ITS CATEGORIES.
DOI: 10.5220/0003594905810585
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (PMSS-2011), pages 581-585
ISBN: 978-989-8425-56-0
Copyright
c
 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

traffic sociology proved the social attributes
characteristics of urban traffic.
Traffic, one of human’s needs and survival
instincts, has become the content of human life with
humanitarian and sociality. As we all know, people
has social attributes. Thus, urban traffic which
human subjects involved in is bound to reflect the
basic characteristics of human society by a large
number of social factors. The operation of urban
transport needs support of traffic facilities and
general urban traffic has a significant difference with
ordinary city facilities. Urban traffic facilities are
closely connected to people's daily lives and have a
profound impact on the lives of urban people. The
scope of ordinary city facilities is limited, confined
to the space and time that facility is located in. With
the existence of the city, city traffic is entering every
corner of the city in-depth. Therefore, from the
perspective of urban social operation, urban traffic
inevitably reflects the unique sociality and humanity.
In order to live better, human beings stay in the
city, and the city's long-term development is creating
a unique urban social structure. The relationship
between urban social structure and urban transport
development is close and complex. Social attributes
of things often contain many features, some meet the
requirements of social development, and some
impede social development. Urban traffic and
related social factors may be mutual promotion and
a coordinated development; they may hinder each
other and be uncoordinated development. Social
attributes of city traffic makes urban transport
system must be run under the conditions of society,
and the purpose cannot be reached ignored the large
number of social factors. In order to get better
exchange and traffic, people choose a compact urban
living, but that has resulted in the accumulation of
urban traffic congestion, disorder, loss of life and
property, waste of social resources. Based on this
basic contradiction, this paper argues that the
content of social attribute of city traffic should do
the following understanding. Social attributes of city
traffic expresses as a dynamic, complex interaction
between the urban traffic and other elements of
urban social systems formed in long-term survival
and the development process of the main body of the
city. It can be direct and indirect or inhibited and
promoted, and improving to the urban transport
based on the social points is feasible and necessary.
Huimei Zhang considers the present traffic
pattern cannot effectively ensure the operation of
social system, it is necessary to study traffic
phenomena using social science methods. This
structure of traffic study and the separation of
sociology are not commensurate with the social
attributes social status and social relations of traffic.
Some scholars in urban traffic and urban sociology
believe that the study of social attributes of city
traffic is a pressing and significant thing. Reaches on
social attributes of urban traffic is to study the
interaction between the overall operation of our city
and the city traffic system from a sociological point,
and then identify the causes of urban traffic
disharmony in society. Purpose of the study goes to
the analysis of the urban traffic status based on the
analysis of the mechanism of related social factors,
improving urban traffic conditions by taking
relevant measures of social factors, higher living
standards and people's life satisfaction of the city
and promoting urban harmony.
2 THEORY OF SOCIAL
CATEGORIES STUDY ON
URBAN TRANSPORT
According to the problem content and the feedback
mechanism to ascertain the boundary of things are
important and basic theoretical research work.
Different definitions of the subjects will lead to
different categories of various theories. The division
of urban transport properties Category should be
based on the purpose of urban traffic social property
study. As the logic point, category is the basic
concept, reflection and summary of the things and
phenomena in general on the human mind. Each
discipline has its own unique range of areas.
Category of urban traffic social attributes is the one
the social factors have an impact on the emergence
and development of urban transport. Category
division is to classify these factors as a class or a
type, such as: education, regulations, customs and so
on.
2.1 Theory of Category Division
The concept of "the classical theory" or "aristotle
theory" once unified the world. Theory is that
category is defined by the necessary and sufficient
features, the category has definite boundary, within
the confines, and the members have equal status.
(Taylor，1995). The "prototype theory" is proposed
by roach on the base of research. He thinks most
natural categories cannot develop a set of necessary
and sufficient standards, and the necessary standard
is often inadequate standards. Categories between
the certain members are not identical, some
members (prototype members) have a special
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position, are considered as the formal members, a
prototype members are endowed with informal
member status according to its similarity degree with
prototype members. Additionally, some documents
think the boundary of the category is obscure, so a
natural category should have typicality, similarity
and fuzziness three characteristics. According to this
theory, prototype members have cognitive
significance and they are the easiest to store and
retrieve. In the process of forming concept, they are
closest to people’s expectation and anticipation, the
notable degree level declines from prototype
members to atypical members. Natural category
division is not historical events, nor accidental
product by certain people. Generic partition is a
process of concept formation. It must satisfy the
requirements of the human cognition to the
conceptual formation. This makes the human
experience underlie category divided theory.
2.2 The Principles of Social Attribute
Categories
To ensure the quality of categories, we need certain
criteria to limit the screening constraints. There is a
basic work to do is developing the principles of
social attribute categories, and then select screening
factors according to the set of basic principles. The
standards established referenced to related literature
of category development and summarized combined
with the status of the existing urban transport
reaches.
(1) The Principle of Purpose: urban traffic itself is a
system and its existence and operation aimed to
support residents travel and operation of the city. In
order to support research and meet the needs of
problem-solving, goal-oriented and address urban
transport problems must be the principles of
category division.
(2) The Principle of Parallel: category is used to
reflect different aspects of the same thing. In order
to avoid confusion in understanding, the internal
members should be kept parallel relationship. Study
in this paper fully considered the parallel
relationship between the categories, which is also
the basic requirements of the division of city traffic
social attributes.
(3) The Principle of Simplification: urban transport
system itself has a very complex structure, and to
facilitate research and ensure the quality of the
results， this paper will minimize the scope of the
border to ensure a clear structure of social attribute
categories. We will control the number of the factors
of social attribute categories according to the degree
of influence and inclusion relations of different
elements.
(4) The Principle of Effectiveness: social structure in
different cities will be different. With the given
purpose, the scope of the categories should be
distinguished by the different characteristics of
different cities. We should present the city's urban-
related social factors according to the general
characteristics of cities in the course of this study,
and then make the city's own choice of factors
combined with its features to ensure the factors are
effective.
(5) The Principle of Evolvement: both city and
urban traffic are in their own continuous
developments. Under the combined effect of various
factors, social factors may appear and the old-
obvious factors may become less significant roles.
Insist the dynamic evolution of social factors of city
traffic is an important principle to ensure the
improvement of traffic problems, and promote the
harmonious development of urban.
3 THE RESEARCH AND
DETERMINE OF THE SOCIAL
AREAS ON URBAN TRAFFIC
The results of study indicate that category division is
a theoretical and highly integrated area. There are
some specific methods of category division as
follows: literature analysis, expert interviews, open-
ended questionnaire survey and statistics and so on.
3.1 Methods of Category Division of
City Traffic Social Attributes
(1) Literature Analysis: social attributes of the traffic
is persistent, we can find some existing research
results through the relevant literature. With the help
of relevant or related category literature we can
study the issue.
(2) Discipline Classification: development of the
disciplines can reflect the level of awareness for the
field. The idea of disciplines classification of the
transport sector is to find the social category of
urban traffic through the development and history of
related disciplines.
(3) Expert Interviews: knowledge of experts is a
very valuable asset and their understanding of the
area which will be more comprehensive and
profound. Expert interview is an important method
SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF URBAN TRAFFIC AND ITS CATEGORIES
583

to obtain, enhance social category classification of
urban traffic social attributes.
(4) Group Interviews: people are the participants of
the city traffic, and the categories can be refined,
supplementary and verification by group interviews
for given traffic scenarios. The feelings and personal
experiences of participants in transportation will
make category more authentic.
3.2 Application of Methods of Category
Division in City Traffic Social
Attributes
In this study, a variety of methods is used to collect
multiple sets of subject category, and a final
category of the topic will be produced after the
screen to summary subjects in the context. On
outcomes of existing research, this article query
from the relevant literature analysis and subjects
classification. In addition, this paper got statistical
indicators of social category of beijing and shanghai
as the basis for selection and studied literature on
urban transport system through top-down and
bottom-up methods. For example: zhongyuan gu
mentioned in "sociology of development on
transport research issues " that attributes of human
existence, social interaction attributes, socialization
attributes, social operation attributes are the original
social attributes of traffic. In addition, cultural
communication, politics and economic attributes is
also some social attributes of urban traffic. "
interaction between urban traffic and the social and
economic development in beijing, ", a paper studied
the relationship between urban transport and
beijing's economic and social development from the
quantitative aspects, listed a number of social
attributes like population, consumption, income
level and so on. Moreover, information technology,
urban land, means of transportation, urban layout,
traffic management, quality and level of civilization
of traffic participants and the urban traffic policy are
all objectives of the research literature.
Development of transport subjects mainly related
to transport economics, transport planning, urban
culture, traffic behavior, traffic laws and traffic
sociology six social attributes related disciplines.
The existence of related disciplines is the proof of
rationality. Thus, we can sort out the economic,
transportation planning, culture, habits, laws and
regulations five social attributes. In group interviews
on social properties of urban traffic, population,
employment, consumption, education, culture,
energy, environment, investment, prices,
technological progress and the tertiary industry had
been proposed. Finally, the study got guidance of
traffic expert professor liren duan. Interviews with
middle and old stressed the coordination of the three
themes of environment and culture. Coordination,
environment and culture are stressed in the interview
with professor duan.
3.3 Screening and Identification of
Category Topics
Already mentioned above, the scope of the subjects
can be initially identified by expert scoring. First,
the experts determined the theme of the initial rate
and calculate the average scores of all category
topics. And then, the experts gave the second scores
according to the average scores. Ultimately, there is
a set of category keywords. This paper obtained the
following category topics: "population", "economy",
"culture", "management", "facilities" and
"psychological", "education "and "environment".
This eight category topics above is the topics in first
layer of thesaurus identified in this paper.
3.4 Thesaurus of Social Attributes on
Urban Traffic
Form the classical theory of category, later prototype
theory to jaekendoff "dominance rules system",
subdivision of category is a complex and highly
controversial work. Considering the quality of
research and practical applications, this paper argues
that combination of the prototype theory and the
semantic component analysis model (ca) generated
by classical theory can be useful in overcoming the
shortage of ignoring the lack results of human
experiences caused by using classical theory alone.
Figure 1, we can visually show research ideas of
thesaurus of social attributes on urban traffic. The
topics in first layer of thesaurus were identified in
this paper only, and we hope it can give further help
to this issue.
Figure 1: Research route of thesaurus of social attributes
on urban traffic.
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4 SUMMARY
This paper discussed the social attributes of urban
traffic, objectives of urban traffic social attributes
researches and the principles of categories of social
attributes, described method to determine category
and beijing's urban traffic on social categories are
discussed. Some suggestions were given on the
establishment of topic word list of urban transport
social attributes at the end of this paper. Since
category needs update as the development of object,
social attributes of urban traffic areas cannot be
static and category members will be in the process of
dynamic evolvement. The category division of urban
traffic social attributes is only the beginning, and
there must be inadequacies which need to be
improved in the process of theoretical research and
practical application.
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper was supported by “the fundamental
research funds for the central universities
(2009jbm030)”.
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