Analysis of BART Impacts on Bay Area Land Use

Abstract

Despite a large store of historical evidence and conventional wisdom, the relationships between transportation and land use are neither documented nor well understood. Experience suggests that changes in urban form are connected to transportation changes, yet the urban development process is so complex that the independent effects of transportation on land use and vice versa remain mostly conjecture. Introduction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system provides an opportunity to investigate some of these questions. Available theory and methodology are summarized and found to be weak relative to the task. Conclusions emphasize the need to develop research using descriptive (collection of data on zoning and use changes, property value, building and market activity) and behavioral (case studies of specific stations, problem areas, and major apparent BART impacts) analyses, drawing upon partial models, rather than a comprehensive framework or rigorous experimental design.