Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit Stations on Surrounding Single-Family Home Values: Study of East Busway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Abstract

The development of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems is relatively recent in the United States; however, several systems are operating and many more are being planned. More comprehensive understanding is needed of the relationship between land use and BRT, particularly in comparison with other fixed-guideway modes. This paper describes an effort to quantify the impacts of BRT stations on the values of surrounding single-family homes. The hypothesis is that BRT stations have an impact on property value that is commensurate with rail transit projects, considering the level and permanence of services and facilities. To test that hypothesis, a hedonic regression model was used to estimate the impact of distance to a BRT station on the fair market value of single-family homes. Because many BRT systems operating in the United States may be too new to find evidence of capitalization into property values, data from East Busway, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the oldest operating BRT systems in the country, was used. Decreasing marginal effects were found: moving from 101 to 100 ft from a station increases property value approximately $18.90; moving from 1,001 to 1,000 ft increases property value by approximately $2.71. The results shown in this paper are valid only for the data used in Pittsburgh's case. As more BRT systems continue to operate in the United States, this method should be applied to other cities and other types of properties to gain a better understanding of the general impacts of proximity to BRT.