Abstract
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is often considered a solution for automobile dependency in the pursuit of sustainability. Although TOD has shown various benefits as sustainable development and smart growth, there are potential downsides, such as transit-induced gentrification (TIG). Even if there were no displacement issues with TIG, existing residents could be disadvantaged by a TOD due to affordability problems. This study focuses on these potential affordability issues and aims to evaluate the effects of TOD using residents’ discretionary income (DI) as an indicator of affordability. The light rail transit-oriented development (LRTOD) in Phoenix, AZ, is selected because of the timing of the introduction of development and the simplicity of the light rail transit line. In order to counteract problems induced by a non-random location of TODS, propensity score matching is used. The results indicate that LRTOD can give benefit to all TOD residents. Moreover, the effects of LRTOD on discretionary income of various types of households are not statistically significantly different. We have identified the different magnitudes of the effects of TOD between propensity score matching (PSM)-controlled and uncontrolled models. These indicate the existence of the selection bias of TOD implementation, justifying the adoption of the PSM method.
Highlights
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is often considered a solution for automobile dependency in the pursuit of sustainability
This study mainly focuses on the phenomenon of residential gentrification caused by transit-oriented development, which we refer to transit-induced gentrification (TIG)
TOD was not implemented randomly, which means that the characteristics of TOD and non-TOD neighborhoods may differ, and this affects the evaluation of the TOD’s influence
Summary
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is often considered a solution for automobile dependency in the pursuit of sustainability. TOD has shown various benefits in sustainable development and smart growth, there may be potential downsides, such as transit-induced gentrification. The benefits from TOD, such as improved accessibility, walkability, and environment, could be capitalized into land values, which increases housing prices and rent [5,6,7,8]. If the increases in residential costs outrun the benefits of TOD, such as an increase in incomes due to the revitalization and/or decrease in transportation costs, transit-induced gentrification can result. There have been arguments that transit-induced gentrification (TIG) can accompany and/or trigger displacement of minorities and lower-income families [8,9,10]. Even if there turns out to be no displacement with TIG, TOD can disadvantage existing residents due to affordability problems [6,11,12]
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