The impact of metro services on housing prices: a case study from Beijing

Assessment of the impact of metro systems on housing prices is important for financing transport infrastructure via value capture. This paper provides evidence for this relationship, focusing particularly on the effects of metro services, and uses the large city of Beijing, China, as a case study. A spatial error model was applied to 2835 samples of online property sales data obtained in January 2016. Three transport service indicators associated with metro transfers and waiting times were explored: (1) metro headway, (2) access to different metro lines and (3) accessibility to employment opportunities. The results show that areas with more employment opportunities via public transit have higher housing prices than other areas. Shorter metro headways are positively related to housing prices near stations. Housing prices for neighborhoods having access to more than one metro line within 800 m-buffer area are higher than those without access to metro lines, controlling for number of accessible jobs within 30 min. This study sheds light on the importance of metro services on housing prices. It has implications for further research and for the planning policies of metro-dependent cities.

     

Medical-purposed travel behaviors in rural areas in developing countries: a case study in rural Cambodia

This study aimed at identifying influencing factors in an individual’s choice of health service facility and transportation mode to the facility, using two datasets: one collected through face-to-face interviews held between February and March 2016, containing responses from 258 local residents, and the other collected from 45 residents in the follow-up survey in December 2016. The study area was located in rural Cambodia, where road conditions were recently improved and a health sector policy was implemented to assist poor people in accessing to health services. An empirical analysis was carried out using nested logit models, consisting of two choices of three travel modes (private, shared, or walking) and two types of public health service facilities (health center or referral hospital). The results revealed the following: (1) individuals in households with motorcycles tend to visit health service facilities using private travel modes, whereas individuals in households without their own transportation tend to visit health service facilities using shared travel modes or on foot, and (2) travel distance between individuals’ houses and the selected facilities likely discourages people from visiting referral hospitals, where a variety of health services are available, but does not affect the choice of health centers, offering limited health services while being located closer to residential areas. These findings suggested the need to equip health centers with more functions as health service providers and to operationalize public transportation services for those who cannot afford to visit referral hospitals, which would enable people to receive necessary health services more conveniently.

     

On joint railway and housing development strategy

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) with railway service is recognized as a sustainable mode of development for highly dense megacities. In addition to providing safe and efficient transit services, reducing auto dependence and therefore less need for highway expansions, the improved accessibility of TOD influences commuters’ residential location choices and the resultant housing value. Traditionally, statistical approaches have been used to estimate the relationship between railway development and housing value for individual sites. To some degree, TOD has also been studied with integrated land-use transport models. While useful, they lack an analytical framework to study the region-wide impacts of TOD on residential location and travel choices and the resultant land value changes. In this study, the joint railway and housing development strategy is modeled based on a combined equilibrium formulation with the bid-rent process. The problem is formulated as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints, in which the upper level optimizes the objective for the joint development strategy by deciding on the combination of housing supplies and railway service levels. Analytical results are obtained for a single corridor in a multi-modal transport network, which are further illustrated by sensitivity analyses. A numerical example is constructed to demonstrate the approach and compare with other separate development strategies. The results generally confirm the synergy between railway and housing developments.     

Extending the Scope of Highway Planning: Accessibility,Negative Externalities and the Residential Context

The objectives of this review-based paper were twofold. Firstly, we aimed to explore the need and possibilities for broadening the scope of highway planning by taking account of the residential context, including residential satisfaction. Satisfaction appears to be an interesting, and in our opinion, valuable mediating planning concept between road infrastructure planning and the accompanying external effects on the one hand and household coping strategies on the other. Households living near highway infrastructure are influenced by both positive (i.e. accessibility gains) and negative road-related factors (e.g. noise nuisance and air pollution). Changes in these factors may trigger people to accept the new situation, adjust preferences, try to influence plans and/or even relocate. The second aim was to gain a greater understanding of the influence of both accessibility characteristics and negative externalities on the residential context of households. With respect to context, we make a distinction between residential satisfaction, housing prices and residential relocation. We see changes in residential satisfaction as a potential early predictor of opposition to plans, not only from active opposers but also from the more ‘silent majority’, and as a predictor of housing price changes and residential migration. Insights into residential satisfaction around highways may help transportation planners to relieve locational stress and may also prevent protests and relocations. Our literature review indicated that households prefer to live close to highways to benefit from high regional accessibility, but do not want to contend with the nuisances. This is also reflected in property values. However, the literature appears to put more emphasis on studying the impact of (regional) accessibility and externalities on location behaviour than on residential satisfaction. Because of the added value that the concept of residential satisfaction may provide in road planning, and the limited scientific insights, it is important to gain greater insight into how residential satisfaction is influenced by negative and positive externalities and into how residential satisfaction changes over time—from the stage when new road projects are discussed through to concrete planning, realization and the period after completion. Moreover, it would be worthwhile to gain a deeper understanding of the extent to which house prices, location behaviour and residential satisfaction near highways interrelate.     

The effects of highway development on housing prices

The purpose of this research is to estimate the effects of highway development projects on the price of housing. Transportation development projects, highways in particular, improve a certain area’s accessibility but also increase its levels of exposure to traffic intensity and noise pollution. These externalities are evaluated by homeowners and residents and are reflected in the price of housing. In this paper, we use several repeat sales model specifications, including difference-in-differences estimators, and control for neighborhood effects to examine housing price trends in the municipalities around two newly developed highways in the Netherlands. The results of the research demonstrate that changes in accessibility result in a significant positive effect on the price of housing in nearby municipalities, but that increased noise pollution and traffic intensity levels result in a decrease in prices. The findings also confirm that combining the total effects of all externalities, the effect of highway development on the price of housing is generally positive, and this effect is salient even before the project is completed due to public anticipation effects.     

Residential built environment and walking activity: Empirical evidence of Jane Jacobs’ urban vitality

This study intends to empirically verify Jacobs’ urban vitality theory, which was based on the observations of her New York City neighborhood in the mid-20th century. To examine the relationship between the residential built environment and walking activity, we used telephone survey data consisting of 1823 valid samples from across Seoul, a city characterized by a high population density and a well-established public transportation system. Respondents were asked questions about their residential location, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and their walking activities. This study then used geographic information systems to measure objective indicators of built environment variables within 500-meter buffer areas based on the home addresses of the respondents. Then, this study constructed multilevel regression models with walking activity as the dependent variable. Our results indicated that walking activity is associated with Jacobs’ six conditions for urban vitality, including land use mix, density, block size, building age, accessibility, and border vacuums.     

The value of transportation accessibility in a least developed country city – The case of Rajshahi City,Bangladesh

Little appears to be known about the capitalization of transportation accessibility in South Asian housing markets, which typically differ from those of industrialized countries. This study starts addressing this gap by providing empirical evidence about the nature and the magnitude of the value of accessibility as reflected by residential rents in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. Results of our SARAR spatial hedonic model estimated on 526 observations from a random sample collected via in-person interviews indicate that the rent of a multi-unit dwelling decreases by 0.0239% for every 1% increase in network access distance to the nearest major road. Moreover, proximity (within 400 m) to a primary school and to a healthcare facility commands rent premiums of respectively 93.55 BDT ($1.40) and 109.45 BDT ($1.64). Surprisingly, whether access roads are paved or not does not statistically impact rents, probably because of the dominance of walking, rickshaws use, and biking, combined with the rarity of personal cars. Likewise, proximity to bus stops and to train stations is not reflected in rents of multi-family dwellings, likely because buses and trains in Rajshahi City only provide regional and national service. Differences in estimates of our spatial models between maximum likelihood (ML) and generalized spatial two-stage-least-squares illustrate the danger of relying on ML in the presence of heteroskedasticity. These results should be useful for planning transportation infrastructure funding measures in least developed country cities like Rajshahi City.     

Integrated modeling of urban hierarchy and transportation network planning

A major problem addressed during the preparation of spatial development plans relates to the accessibility to facilities where services of general interest such as education, health care, public safety, and justice are offered to the population. In this context, planners typically aim at redefining the level of hierarchy to assign to the urban centers of the region under study (with a class of facilities associated with each level of hierarchy) and redesigning the region’s transportation network. Traditionally, these two subjects – urban hierarchy and transportation network planning – have been addressed separately in the scientific literature. This paper presents an optimization model that simultaneously determines which urban centers and which network links should be promoted to a new level of hierarchy so as to maximize accessibility to all classes of facilities. The possible usefulness of the model for solving real-world problems of integrated urban hierarchy and transportation network planning is illustrated through an application to the Centro Region of Portugal.     

Mapping spatial accessibility of public transportation network in an urban area – A case study of Shanghai Hongqiao Transportation Hub

Accessibility is a key metric when assessing the efficiency of an urban public transportation network. This research develops a methodology for evaluating spatial accessibility of a system with multiple transportation modes in an urban area, Shanghai Hongqiao Transportation Hub (SHTH) and its surrounding area. The method measured total traveling time as an accessibility indicator, which summed the time people spent on walking, waiting, transfer and transportation in a journey from the SHTH to destinations. Spatial accessibility was classified into five levels from very high to very low. The evaluation was conducted at a cell-by-cell basis under an overall scenario and three specific scenarios. Evaluation results were presented in a series of maps. The overall accessibility scenario shows a concentric-ring trend decreasing from the SHTH to the fringe of the study area. Areas along the metro lines generally have a much higher accessibility than those along the bus lines with some exceptions where bus routes play a more important role. Metro stations identified as either time-saving or time-consuming points are mainly distributed around the urban center. Some suggestions are proposed for improving accessibility of public transportation network in the study area. The results from this study provide a scientific basis and useful information for supporting decision-making on urban planning, and assisting dwellers to travel in a time-efficient manner. The methodology offers a simple, flexible way to the spatial evaluation, metro station identification and network modification of accessibility of public transportation systems with multiple transportation modes.     

Residential segregation and commuting patterns of migrant workers in China

In China, many rural migrant workers experience residential segregation and live in urbanizing villages, due to China’s unique institutional context (e.g. land tenure system, hukou system) as well as exclusionary housing regulations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether these urbanizing villages provide good job accessibility for rural migrant workers. We explore this problem by investigating the commuting patterns of migrant workers. Through a survey conducted in 2009 across four mega-regions in China that are currently experiencing rapid urbanization, we collected individual level information on rural migrant workers’ commute distances and durations, demographics, household socioeconomic status, and whether the migrant worker is living in an urbanizing village or not. From residential address information collected in the survey, we constructed a group of built environment variables. Using IV Tobit models to address the endogeneity issues associated with residential location choice, our analyses show that these urbanizing villages actually provide relatively good accessibility to job opportunities. This result is different from what is suggested by the spatial mismatch literature based on U.S. data. This research helps to fill the gap in the literature on the relationship between residential segregation, built environment and travel behavior in the Chinese context. The findings have implications for policymaking, especially when many government officials are proposing to demolish urbanizing villages without fully realizing the benefits of these villages. This research could also provide useful information for other developing countries facing residential segregation of migrants or immigrants.     

How household transportation expenditures have evolved in Canada: a long term perspective

In recent years, increasing recognition of the challenges associated with global climate change and inequity in developed countries have revived researcher’s interest towards analyzing transportation related expenditure of households. The current research contributes to travel behaviour literature by developing an econometric model of household budgetary allocations with a particular focus on transportation expenditure. Towards this end, we employ the public-use micro-data extracted from the Survey of Household Spending (SHS) for the years 1997–2009. The proposed econometric modeling approach is built on the multiple discrete continuous extreme value model (MDCEV) framework. Specifically, in our analysis, the scaled version of the MDCEV model outperformed its other counterparts. Broadly, the model results indicated that a host of household socio-economic and demographic attributes along with the residential location characteristics affect the apportioning of income to various expenditure categories and savings. We also observed a relatively stable transportation spending behaviour over time. Additionally, a policy analysis exercise is conducted where we observed that with increase in health expenses and reduction in savings results in adjustments in all expenditure categories.     

The capitalization of subway access in home value: A repeat-rentals model with supply constraints in Beijing

Urban rail transit enhances accessibility of the communities it serves and often contributes to the value of local real properties. A small number of studies have gone beyond the traditional cross-sectional hedonic analysis to use repeat-sales data in the US for more robust estimation of rail transit’s impact on property value. While the empirical literature generally supports the positive capitalization of rail transit in home value, it has produced widely varied estimates and failed to incorporate the theoretical insight that more elastic housing supply would reduce the extent of local amenities’ capitalization in home value. Observing Beijing’s rapid expansion of subway lines during the late 2000s, this study uses repeat rental transactions from 2005 to 2011 to investigate how home value reacts to the change in the home’s distance to nearest subway station. Repeat-rentals estimates suggest a rent-distance elasticity of −0.02, 70% below the cross-sectional hedonic estimate. Moreover, using the unique history of state-owned enterprise relocations as instrument for intra-city variation in land supply, we find that the capitalization of subway proximity in home value is weaker where land supply is more elastic. Our findings support the significant bias caused by omitted variables in the hedonic estimates and confirm housing supply’s role in explaining the intra-city spatial variation in estimates.     

An activity-based approach of investigating travel behaviour of older people

The paper presents the results of an investigation on daily activity-travel scheduling behaviour of older people by using an advanced econometric model and a household travel survey, collected in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Canada in 2011. The activity-travel scheduling model considers a dynamic time–space constrained scheduling process. The key contribution of the paper is to reveal daily activity-travel scheduling behaviour through a comprehensive econometric framework. The resulting empirical model reveals many behavioural details. These include the role that income plays in moderating out-of-home time expenditure choices of older people. Older people in the highest and lowest income categories tend to have lower variations in time expenditure choices than those in middle-income categories. Overall, the time expenditure choices become more stable with increasing age, indicating that longer activity durations and lower activity frequency become more prevalent with increasing age. Daily activity type and location choices reveal a clear random utility-maximizing rational behaviour of older people. It is clear that increasing spatial accessibility to various activity locations is a crucial factor in defining daily out-of-home activity participation of older people. It is also clear that the diversity of out-of-home activity type choices reduces with increasing age and older people are more sensitive to auto travel time than to transit or non-motorized travel time.     

Elderly travel frequencies and transport mode choices in Greater Rotterdam,the Netherlands

Demographic ageing is a key societal challenge in Europe as well as in many other western and non-western societies. A crucial dimension concerns elderly daily mobility patterns. While still partaking fewer and shorter trips than younger generations, today’s elderly have been found increasingly (auto)mobile. Although the elderly benefit from the independence, freedom of movement, and social inclusion, concerns may rise regarding the environmental and accessibility impacts of this induced mobility. The present study adds to the expanding literature on elderly mobility, an integrated analysis of the effects of socio-demographic, health, trip, spatial and weather attributes on elderly mobility. Utilizing travel diary data for Greater Rotterdam, The Netherlands, trip frequencies and transport mode choices of the elderly are analysed by means of zero-inflated negative binomial models as well as multinomial logit regression models, and contrasted to the non-elderly subpopulation to explore (dis)similarities. While the results show common determinants, the models also highlight important differences in the magnitude of the estimated coefficients and factors only influencing transport patterns for the elderly. Embedded in the context of an aging population, the empirical findings assist policy-makers and planners in several respects: For transportation plans and programs it is critical to recognize mobility needs of the elderly. As the seniors are becoming increasingly automobile, the results call for strategies to encourage older people to use more physically active and environmentally friendly transport modes such as public transport, walking and cycling.     

An innovative model to estimate the accessibility of a destination by public transport

Accessibility is a valuable indicator for assessing the effectiveness of a transport network. Nevertheless, its analysis can lead to very heterogeneous results depending on the method adopted, thus still struggling to be considered by policy makers and in planning processes. This article contributes to the development of an accessibility analysis as a planning tool, by proposing an alternative model to estimate the relative accessibility of a destination by public transport (PT). Indeed, PT is a mobility paradigm that has been supported to reduce the negative externalities produced by private transport, especially in environmentally fragile contexts. The model includes a set of eleven factors affecting public transport operation which refer to four macro topics: connectivity, multimodality, tariff/ticketing, and info-mobility. They are integrated into a Public Transport Accessibility index which analyses a series of nodes along a route and detects the progressive variation of accessibility. Eventual shifts are highlighted, including information about the factors feeding them. The model is tested for the Lana-Zurich (IT-CH) connection, showing how the most relevant issues are caused by difficulties in the transnational and transregional integration of the services. Through this process, the model aims at backing policy makers in the detection and understanding of public transport barriers and related causes.     

The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost

Social equity is increasingly incorporated as a long-term objective into urban transportation plans. Researchers use accessibility measures to assess equity issues, such as determining the amount of jobs reachable by marginalized groups within a defined travel time threshold and compare these measures across socioeconomic categories. However, allocating public transit resources in an equitable manner is not only related to travel time, but also related to the out-of-pocket cost of transit, which can represent a major barrier to accessibility for many disadvantaged groups. Therefore, this research proposes a set of new accessibility measures that incorporates both travel time and transit fares. It then applies those measures to determine whether people residing in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods in Montreal, Canada experience the same levels of transit accessibility as those living in other neighborhoods. Results are presented in terms of regional accessibility and trends by social indicator decile. Travel time accessibility measures estimate a higher number of jobs that can be reached compared to combined travel time and cost measures. However, the degree and impact of these measures varies across the social deciles. Compared to other groups in the region, residents of socially disadvantaged areas have more equitable accessibility to jobs using transit; this is reflected in smaller decreases in accessibility when fare costs are included. Generating new measures of accessibility combining travel time and transit fares provides more accurate measures that can be easily communicated by transportation planners and engineers to policy makers and the public since it translates accessibility measures to a dollar value.     

Modeling access to public transport in urban areas

It is important to measure public transport accessibility to help improve the sustainability of transport systems in metropolitan areas. Although many studies have defined different approaches for measuring public transport accessibility, there have been limited methods developed for measuring accessibility levels that incorporate spatial aspects. Population density is an important distributional indicator that has also been ignored in previous methods developed for quantifying accessibility. This paper outlines the research context for measurement of public transport accessibility and then describes a methodology developed as well as an application the Public Transport Accessibility Index in Melbourne area, Australia. Using the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity dataset, we applied separate‐ordered logit regression models to examine how the new index performs with a series of predictor variables compared with two existing approaches. Key findings indicate that there is a higher probability of public transport patronage in areas with higher levels of accessibility. Furthermore, it was found using statistical modelling that the new index produces better results compared with previous approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of neighborhood types on active transport in China’s growing cities

Rapid urban expansion in China has created both opportunities and challenges for promoting active transport in urban residential communities. Previous studies have shown that the urban form at the city scale has affected active transport in Chinese cities. However, there is less agreement about how the physical and social variations of neighborhood types should be addressed. This research investigates the four most representative neighborhood types found in Chinese cities: traditional mixed-use, slab block work-unit, gated community, and resettlement housing. Household travel diaries conducted in Chengdu in 2016 were analyzed using binary logistic regressions, supplemented by informal onsite interviews. The findings indicate significant variations in the use and accessibility of active transport in each neighborhood type for non-work trips. This suggests that each neighborhood type may need different strategies for promoting active transport: (1) the traditional mixed-use neighborhoods are in need of intensified urban retrofitting projects to reclaim public open space; (2) the work-unit could benefit from comprehensive plans rather than a patchwork of projects; (3) while opening up gated communities can improve porosity across neighborhoods and promote active transport, the more pressing issue may be their inability to keep up with the transportation needs of the residents; and (4) residents of resettlement housing should have better access to employment using transit and non-motorized modes.     

Modelling car trip generations for UK residential developments using data from TRICS

Abstract

This paper models trip generation for a cross-section of residential developments around the UK. Consistent with recent literature, the empirical model tests whether trip making patterns for residential developments are independent of car ownership and finds that trip generation is dependent upon car ownership socio-economic factors and site-specific characteristics, in particular land-zone type (e.g. town centre, out of town, etc.). However, public transport services are not found to have a significant relationship with trip generation; consequently, a policy implication of the results is that increasing bus services to residential developments is not associated with a reduction in generated trips.     

Gender,Residential Location,and Household Travel: Empirical Findings from Low‐income Urban Settlements in Durban,South Africa

Abstract

Urban development and transport policies designed to improve the livelihoods of poor communities need to consider the particular needs of women to be effective. Gender roles are played out in a spatial world, and can thus be expected to vary across the urban landscape. The paper examines empirical relationships between spatial factors—in particular residential location within the city—and travel behaviour for men and women in a cross‐section of low‐income communities in a large metropolitan area in South Africa. Data from a comprehensive household survey show that locality has a significant influence on gender experiences of mobility. Gender differences are greatest in more distant, rural localities, although site‐specific characteristics such as walking access to social services, informal work, and small‐scale agriculture help alleviate women’s inequitable travel burdens. Central localities display the smallest differences between men and women’s travel habits, supporting the notion that the high access afforded by centrally located housing helps to promote the satisfaction of women’s daily needs as well as their strategic empowerment. Households in peri‐urban and peripheral localities suffer the highest travel burdens, having neither the high access of a central location nor the livelihoods‐enhancing amenities of a rural environment. Women bear a large part of this burden. Urban development strategies to benefit the urban poor while promoting gender equity are highlighted, including an added emphasis on the provision of social and educational infrastructure within closer proximity to peripheral residential areas, coupled with better pedestrian access.