Browsing by Subject "Rail transit"

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Borrowed sizes: A hedonic price approach to the value of network structure in public transport systems
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Bohman, Helena; Nilsson, Désirée
Property prices are known to be higher in places with high accessibility, such as in proximity to train stations and especially to commuter rail, than in places without this access. This study provides a better understanding of how regional accessibility, through the structure of railway networks, can influence local agglomeration economies by providing accessibility to large labor markets. Previous literature has shown a positive impact of proximity to railway stations on housing prices, and our study adds to the literature by analyzing the impact of network structure. We argue that public transport systems can support the benefits of city networks in line with Alonso’s concept of borrowed sizes (1973). Using network theory to measure accessibility provided by the network, we show that stations that provide accessibility to large labor markets across the region are perceived as more attractive by households. Cities in proximity to other cities are strengthened through their public transport links, which allow agglomeration benefits to be exploited by residents.
A brief introduction to London’s underground railways and land use
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2014) Darroch, Nathan
The most common perception of London’s underground railways and land use is that the railway stimulated suburban development and growth of the city. However, the interface between the railway, private property interests, and urban and suburban development is much more complicated than this. This paper introduces a brief overview of the interrelationship between the railway and land use in the central zone of London and some of the complexities involved with the presence of the railway and the development or use of adjoining lands. As this topic appears to be little discussed, evidence is used from London Underground records and specialist knowledge to form the argument that the topic should have greater discussion academically and practically.
Cost of an urban rail ride: A nation-level analysis of ridership, capital costs and cost-effectiveness performance of urban rail transit projects in China
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Zhao, Jinbao; Li, Chaosu; Zhang, Ruhua; Palmer, Mathew
Although urban rail transit (URT) is an attractive alternative mode of daily travel, barriers exist in URT development across the world, in particular, the high cost of construction and operation and relative low rates of URT ridership. Despite these barriers, URT has gained considerable popularity worldwide in recent years; much of this trend is driven by projects in China. Despite this public support and implementation of URT projects, the ridership, capital costs and cost-effectiveness of URT projects remain largely unstudied. This paper addresses this planning and policy issue by examining line-level ridership and investment data for 97 heavy rail transit (HRT) lines and 12 light rail transit (LRT) lines in 28 Chinese cities. Comparative analysis is conducted so as to evaluate the performance and cost-effectiveness of HRT and LRT. Multiple linear regression analysis is used to explain the variability of URT cost-effectiveness and how it varies depending on land use density, project design, system service, and multimodal transit integration. Findings indicate that land-use density, line length, number of transfer stations, operation time, and bus ridership significantly contribute to higher levels of URT ridership, while URT ridership decreases significantly with train headway and the station’s distance from the city center. It is cost-effective to develop URT in high-density cities in spite of high costs, and some, if not all, LRT lines are more cost-effective than HRT lines. As of this analysis, the overdevelopment of HRT in China has failed to plan for multimodal transport integration and operational optimization. However, these shortcomings are also opportunities for Chinese transportation and land-use planners to develop more cost-effective URT projects that also improve the level of service available to the public.
Does metro proximity promote happiness? Evidence from Shanghai
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Li, Wan; Sun, Bindong; Yin, Chun; Zhang, Tinglin; Liu, Qianqian
Although an increasing number of scholars are evaluating rail transit benefits, there have been surprisingly few studies of the links between metro proximity and happiness. The principal objective of this paper is to assess the benefits of metro proximity for individual’s happiness. A key challenge to empirically answering this question is the fact that residential location is likely to be the result of self-selection, i.e., personal preference, such that living around a rail station can increase residents’ happiness. Taking advantage of the largely exogenous residential locations of those who bought their house 10 years earlier than the operation of their nearest metro station and those households living in non-market housing in Shanghai, we find proximity to a subway station robustly promotes happiness at the individual level. These results suggest that the development of rail transit and transit-oriented development (TOD) are promising ways to increase happiness.
Estimating the economic benefits of high-speed rail in China: A new perspective from the connectivity improvement
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Chong, Zhaohui; Qin, Chenglin; Chen, Zhenhua
This paper evaluates the economic benefits of high-speed rail (HSR) in China, with a focus on the connectivity change resulting from HSR development. The effect of HSR, measured in degree centrality, is assessed using a spatial econometric modeling technique based on a panel dataset that covers 268 Chinese cities from 2008-2015. To provide a robust assessment, statistical issues including heterogeneous effects, endogeneity, and spatial dependence are addressed simultaneously in the spatial panel modeling process. Our empirical results confirm that connectivity improvement brought by HSR plays a vital role in facilitating economic growth. Specifically, the contribution of HSR to urban economic growth is found to be 0.11, most of which comes from a local effect rather than a spillover effect. Overall, the research findings suggest that urban economic growth can benefit from the development of HSR.
Examining the effects of proximity to rail transit on travel to non-work destinations: Evidence from Yelp data for cities in North America and Europe
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Jiang, Zhiqiu; Mondschein, Andrew
Urban planners often seek to establish land use patterns around transit stations that encourage non-auto travel. However, the willingness of travelers to use different modes in the vicinity of transit remains understudied, in part because of the lack of spatially-precise data on destination and mode choices. Using transportation content extracted from Yelp, a location-based social network (LBSN), we investigate how travel mode to non-work destinations is influenced by proximity to transit. We use textual analysis to analyze travel for non-work activities in seven cities across North America and Europe. Mixed-effect and binomial logistic models show how reported travel by mode varies by distance to rail transit stations. We find that for most non-work activity purposes, reported rail use is highly sensitive to proximity to stations, but some purposes are more amenable to rail use overall. Additionally, compared to non-US cities, US cities are far more parking-dependent near rail stations. The results suggest that not all activities elicit the same levels of non-auto travel, and transit-oriented planning should account for specific activities and regional factors that may modify willingness to travel by different modes. While subject to limitations, LBSNs can illuminate local travel with greater spatial specificity than traditional surveys.
Exploring the Walking Tolerance of Transitway Users
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2017-09) Cao, Jason; Lampe, Joseph; Zhang, Chen
To park or to develop is always a key question for transit station area planning. Planners are interested in a hybrid option: siting park-and- ride (P&R) facilities at the periphery of development around transitway stations. However, the literature offers little evidence on how far a P&R lot can be located from transitways while maximizing ridership and revenue. Using a stated preference survey of 568 P&R users in the Twin Cities, this study conducted several experiments to illustrate their walking tolerance and identify built environment attributes that influence the walking distance. Walking distance is much more important than intersection safety, pedestrian infrastructure, and building appearance in affecting P&R users’ choice. The average walking distance is three city blocks when the minimum walking distance is set as two blocks in the experiments. Intersection safety, pedestrian infrastructure, and building appearance help mitigate the disutility of walking distance. If all three characteristics are adequate, it seems that P&R users are willing to walk 1.8 blocks farther than their existing facilities. A further analysis shows that the effects of these four dimensions vary by transit type. The analysis of stated importance illustrates that when determining how far P&R users are willing to walk, they value snow clearance, street lighting, and intersection safety the most. In general, the quality of sidewalk network connecting transit stops and P&R facilities is the most important, followed by safety and security attributes associated with the walking environment. However, the aesthetic quality seems to be the least important for P&R users.
The gaps in satisfaction with transit services among BRT, metro, and bus riders: Evidence from Guangzhou
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Cao, Jason; Cao, Xiaoshu; Zhang, Chen; Huang, Xiaoyan
This paper explores transit riders’ satisfaction with bus rapid transit (BRT) and compares BRT with conventional bus and metro services using revealed preference data from Guangzhou, China. A trivariate ordered probit model is developed to examine the effects of various service attributes on riders’ overall satisfactions with the three types of transit. We find that the top-three influential attributes for satisfaction with BRT are ease of use, safety while riding, and comfort while waiting. Moreover, transit riders are most satisfied with metro, followed by BRT and conventional bus. The top-five attributes that contribute to the difference in the overall satisfaction between BRT and metro are ease of use, comfort while riding, convenience of service, travel time, and comfort while waiting. Based on the findings, we propose specific strategies that can be used to enhance BRT quality of service.
High-speed rail as a solution to metropolitan passenger mobility: The case of Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou metropolitan area
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Lin, Xiongbin; Yang, Jiawen; MacLachlan, Ian
High-speed rail (HSR) has played an important role in China’s long-distance travel. However, the potential of this transport technology to meet the demand of passenger mobility at the metropolitan scale is still unclear. This research examines this potential by studying transportation investment for intercity passenger mobility in the Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou Metropolitan Area, where multiple fixed guideway transit systems have been proposed and HSR service has been implemented to carry passengers between central Shenzhen and outer portions of this metropolitan region. Comparison of alternative modes explains why HSR is competitive at the metropolitan scale. Interviews with relevant stakeholders reveal the institutional conditions for utilizing the national HSR system for regional passenger mobility.
If you build it, they will change: Evaluating the impact of commuter rail stations on real estate values and neighborhood composition in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, the Netherlands
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Forouhar, Amir; van Lierop, Dea
In many metropolitan regions, transit-oriented developments are built to motivate the use of sustainable travel by promoting urban growth within walking distances of public transport stations. Changes in residential property values are a common way to assess the success of transit-oriented developments. However, studies that focus on property values alone have reported mixed effects. This paper attempts to evaluate the land value impact around commuter rail stations by analyzing the change in property values within the context of the transformation of socio-spatial neighborhood attributes. The study sets out to estimate the effect of Randstad Rail stations using real estate transaction data of residential properties and neighborhood socio-spatial attributes in the Rotterdam–the Hague metropolitan area of the Netherlands covering a period from 1985 to 2018. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, the effect is estimated for properties within different catchment zones around three commuter rail stations using a Difference-in-Differences Model and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The results demonstrate the overall negative effect of the Randstad Rail on the value of residential properties at a distance equal to or less than 400 meters from the selected rail stations in the range of -18.8% to -11.5%. In contrast, a positive effect is observed for the residential properties located within a radius of 400 to 800 meters from the rail stations, which is estimated to be +15% to +33.2%. The findings also indicate a considerable socio-spatial transformation in the neighborhood composition after the opening of the rail stations in terms of neighborhood population density, land-use density, housing characteristics, and car ownership, which significantly affect the magnitude and direction of the impact.
Impact of high-speed rail on intercity travel behavior change: The evidence from the Chengdu-Chongqing Passenger Dedicated Line
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Ren, Xiaohong; Chen, Zhenhua; Wang, Fang; Wang, Jiamei; Wang, Chunyang; Dan, Ting; Du, Zongyang
This paper investigates the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on intercity travel behavior changes using the Chengdu-Chongqing (Chengyu) Passenger Dedicated Line (PDL) as an example. Based on the statistical analysis of survey data that consists of 1384 samples, the result shows that HSR has become the primary mode of intercity travel between Chengdu and Chongqing. Specifically, travel demand has increased by 60% after the operation of the HSR system and the demand change is affected by several factors, such as trip purpose, gender, and travel time savings. The result also shows that the variation of travel demand in both directions declined after the opening of HSR, which suggests that HSR tends to promote a convergent growth of intercity travel demand. Although most passengers ride the Chengyu HSR for a personal reason, the number of riders using it for commuting and business purposes has also increased substantially. Overall, the study confirms that the economic link between Chengdu and Chongqing has been enhanced by the operation of HSR.
Introduction to special issue: Rail transit development in China and beyond
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Diao, Mi; Fan, Yingling; Zhang, Xueliang
Rail transit is widely considered an efficient and environment-friendly means to address the increasing demand for travel. In the past decades, the scale and speed of China's rail transit development has been unprecedented. By the end of 2017, a total of 165 urban rail lines including heavy rail and light rail were in operation in 34 cities in mainland China, with a total track length of 5,033 kilometers (km), and the vast majority of them were built after 2000 (China Association of Metros, 2017). At the intercity scale, China has built the largest high-speed rail (HSR) network in the world, with over 29,000 km HSR lines by the end of 2018 (Central Government of China, 2019). Efforts to develop rail transit are also observed in other cities in both developing and developed countries. We planned this special issue in response to the rapid development of rail transit in China and beyond. In preparation for the special issue, we organized two symposiums to facilitate debates on related research topics in June 2017, including a special session on rail transit at the 11th annual conference of the International Association for China Planning (IACP) hosted by the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China, and the second Symposium on the HSR Network in China hosted by Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.
Investigation on railway investment-induced neighborhood change and local spatial spillover effects in Nagoya, Japan
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Wang, Lisha; Jiang, Meilan; Miwa, Tomio; Morikawa, Takayuki
Previous studies have proven the significant causal relationship between railway investment and gentrification in some cities. However, most of them have focused on the gentry and less on the effect on other social classes. To observe how railway investment affects neighborhood change for different population types, this study investigated the investment effects of two urban railway lines separately on the neighborhood change of the gentry, older population, and students in Nagoya, Japan. These two railway lines consisting of a subway and an elevated railway opened in the same year and were located in different areas of the city. Moreover, the spatial autocorrelation in panel data was considered to investigate possible local spillover effects. Finally, we observed that the railway investments in highly urbanized areas were more likely to induce gentrification. In addition, railway investment has some significant treatment effects on students compared to the older population.
Rail transit development in lagging regions: A development-oriented investment and financing approach
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Xiao, Yu; Zhong, Haotian; Zhou, Tao; Zhou, Yulin
Transportation infrastructure investment can play a significant role in promoting urban development. How can governments finance expensive rail transit investments and promote urban development in lagging regions? This paper reviews a case in Chongqing, China, a municipality that proactively invested in rail transit development through a mechanism of land value capture and guided rapid urbanization. We use path analysis to test the assumption that the rail transit system investment, which is directly linked to the amount of available government reserve land, was an important determinant in promoting urban development. We found that the availability of government reserve land alone cannot promote urban development. However, building transportation infrastructure on government reserve land serves as the catalyst to foster urban development. We see this development-oriented investment and financing approach as promising for raising funds for rail transit investment in other lagging regions in the world.
Transportation Impact of Transitways: A Case Study of Hiawatha Light Rail Transit in Minneapolis
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2013-03) Cao, Jason; Schoner, Jessica
The Metropolitan Council in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area (Twin Cities) aims to greatly increase transit ridership in the next two decades. A network of transitways is an essential component to achieve the ridership goal. Since transitways represent significant infrastructure investments from federal, state, and local governments, the public and planners are interested in their ridership bonus. This study investigated transportation impact of the Hiawatha light rail transit (LRT) using a 2011 dataset collected in the Twin Cities. By employing a match-pair cross-sectional design, we surveyed residents living in the middle section of the Hiawatha LRT corridor and those in two urban control corridors and two suburban control corridors in the region. We first explored the reasons that motivated residents moving into the LRT corridor (or residential preferences) and their connections with transit use. Then we employed a propensity score matching approach to study the impact of Hiawatha LRT on transit use for residents who moved to the corridor before its opening and for those who moved after its opening. Finally, we tested the carryover effect of the LRT and built environment effect on active travel: walking to stores and strolling. The study produced interesting results and offered important implications for land use and transportation policies associated with light rail transit.
Value of Transitways to Regional Economies: National and Twin Cities Perspectives
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2020-04) Fan, Yingling; Wexler, Noah; Guthrie, Andrew; Van Dort, Leoma; Guo, Yuxuan
This study is comprised of two main analyses: (1) a national analysis that assesses the relationship between the presence and quantity of transitway service with the overall economic strength of US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and (2) a comparative analysis of accessibility to regional employment centers, educational institutions, and workforce development service providers under current and hypothetical future transit conditions. For the first analysis, two-way fixed effects regressions controlling for demographics and total transit activity provide evidence that transitway investment is associated positively with GDP and job growth. However, no statistically significant relationship exists between transitway investment and median household income or inequality. The regional comparison analysis finds that fixed-guideway transit is widely accessible, yet slightly concentrated in higher-income or gentrifying neighborhoods.

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