Abstract
As the modern urban–suburban context becomes increasingly problematic with traffic congestion, air pollution, and increased cost of living, city planners are turning their attention to transit-oriented development as a strategy to promote healthy communities. Transit-oriented developments bring valuable resources and improvements in infrastructure, but they also may be reinforcing decades-old processes of residential segregation, gentrification, and displacement of low-income residents and communities of color. Careful consideration of zoning, neighborhood design, and affordability is vital to mitigating the impacts of transit-induced gentrification, a socioeconomic by-product of transit-oriented development whereby the provision of transit service “upscales” nearby neighborhood(s) and displaces existing community members with more affluent and often White residents. To date, the available research and, thus, overall understanding of transit-induced gentrification and the related social determinants of health are limited and mixed. In this review, an overview of racial residential segregation, light rail transit developments, and gentrification in the United States has been provided. Implications for future transit-oriented developments are also presented along with a discussion of possible solutions.
Highlights
As the modern urban–suburban context becomes increasingly problematic with traffic congestion, air pollution, and increased cost of living, city planners are turning their attention to transit-oriented development as a strategy to promote healthy communities
While suburban development across the United States was directly related to the evolution of transportation routes, suburbanization was influenced by technological developments and social ideologies of racial residential segregation, which stemmed from Black Codes and Jim Crow laws
The results showed that proximity increased value at $14 USD per foot closer to the light rail transit (LRT) station, for properties within a quarter of a mile [47]
Summary
“Your zip code is a better predictor of your health than your genetic code”, an assertion that acknowledges the overwhelming variance of health and life expectancy among individuals and communities in specific geographical neighborhoods due to socioeconomics, race, ethnicity, and other social determinants of health [1]. Public investment into a community, often well intentioned, tends to increase cost of living and often fails to incorporate existing local culture and necessities. Those with lower incomes or “less compatible cultures” are often forced to relocate to less desirable neighborhoods that lack essential infrastructural elements, such as paved roads, quality schools, safe streets, transportation, and clean water. (TIG), as a result of transit-oriented development (TOD), referred to as transit-supportive development or transit-friendly development, is an example of this residential segregating process [2] As such, these conditions of deprivation are recognized social determinants of health that have had significant impacts on the well-being and quality of life of many communities of color,
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