Light Rail Stations Research Articles

An alternative assessment for transit-oriented developments (TODs) with land use/land cover (LULC).

Cities experience rapid growth, and various drivers shape this growth. Notably, developing countries experience challenges on land use and transportation conflict. The idea of transit-oriented developments (TODs) is a solution for this concern of urbanization while there is no consensus on defining and identifying them. This study concentrated on the dynamics of land use/land cover (LULC) effects on transit-oriented developments (TODs) by utilizing light rail stations from a metropolitan area in Turkey, as this is the first attempt in this geography. Spatial data covers of high-resolution Sentinel 2A remotely sensed data and Google Earth images acquired in 2021. The study performed the analyses within a 500-m light rail train station buffer. The results reveal that TODs include more urbanized, open space, street connection, commercials, and dense population as expected from the TOD concept. Local officials, practitioners, and developers should be involved with the TOD implementation and policy phases to establish tangible developments in urbanization.

Exploring the Integration of Architectural Design and Advanced Structural Analysis for Steel–Glass Structures: A Comparative Study of Different Case Scenarios

It is well known that finite element analysis (FEA) is a powerful tool when it comes to the design and analysis of complex structures for various load combinations, including light steel curve members. This abstract provides an overview of the FEA simulation process for designing such members (cure members), which involves constructing a 3D model, discretising the member into small elements, assigning material properties, defining boundary conditions, conducting the simulation, analysing the results, and making any necessary modifications to the design. FEA simulations can provide valuable insights into the behaviour of light steel curved members under different load combinations. This enables designers to optimise designs for strength, safety, and cost-effectiveness. This article proposes using two commercial 3D software programs, Rhino 7 and Strand7, to complete the FEA simulation of light steel curved members. The 3D model is created in Rhino 7, and the individual elements are discretised into more minor elements using Strand7 for assigning material properties, defining boundary conditions, running simulations, and analysing the results. The paper presents five case studies of steel–glass façades and applies the proposed methodology to each. Examples include Phoenix International Media Center in Beijing, Kazakhstan Pavilion and Science Museum in Astana, Moynihan Train Hall in New York City, Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne, and the central light rail station in The Hague.

A novel method to identify influential nodes based on hybrid topology structure

With the increasing popularity of rail transit and the increasing number of light rail trips, the vulnerability of rail transit has become increasingly prominent. Once the rail transit is maliciously broken or the light rail station is repaired, it may lead to large-scale congestion or even the paralysis of the whole rail transit network. Hence, it is particularly important to identify the influential nodes in the rail transit network. Existing identifying methods considered a single scenario on either betweenness centrality (BC) or closeness centrality. In this paper, we propose a hybrid topology structure (HTS) method to identify the critical nodes based on complex network theory. Our proposed method comprehensively considers the topology of the node itself, the topology of neighbor nodes, and the global influence of the node itself. Finally, the susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) model, the monotonicity (M), the distinct metric (DM), the Jaccard similarity coefficient (JSC), and the Kendall correlation coefficient (KC) are utilized to evaluate the proposed method over the six real-world networks. Experimental results confirm that the proposed method achieves higher performance than existing methods in identifying networks.

A latent class analysis to understand riders' adoption of on-demand mobility services as a complement to transit.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11116-022-10351-3.

The Association between Changes in Built Environment and Changes in Walking among Older Women in Portland, Oregon.

Some cross-sectional evidence suggests that the objectively measured built environment can encourage walking among older adults. We examined the associations between objectively measured built environment with change in self-reported walking among older women by using data from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF). We evaluated the longitudinal associations between built environment characteristics and walking among 1253 older women (median age = 71 years) in Portland, Oregon using generalized estimating equation models. Built environment characteristics included baseline values and longitudinal changes in distance to the closest bus stop, light rail station, commercial area, and park. A difference of 1 km in the baseline distance to the closest bus stop was associated with a 12% decrease in the total number of blocks walked per week during follow-up (eβ = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.78, 0.99). Our study provided limited support for an association between neighborhood transportation and changes in walking among older women. Future studies should consider examining both objective measures and perceptions of the built environment.

Benefits of Proximity to Rail on Housing Markets: Experiences in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County, California, home to both light- and commuter-rail services, has turned to transit-oriented development as a means to both reduce traffic congestion and redress severe shortages of affordable housing units. This article exanimes the degree to which proximity to two forms of rail transit—light rail and commuter rail—confer benefits to residential properties in terms of sales values. Hedonic price models are estimated that show job proximity over the transit network as well as nearness to rail stops substantially add value to residential parcels. All else being equal, large apartments within a quarter mile of a light-rail station commanded land-value premiums as high as 45 percent. Such market profits not only lure developers to station sites, but also provide a potential source of revenues to local agencies that have set up the kinds of value-recapture programs that allow them to participate in land-appreciation benefits that accrue.

Complementarity of dockless mircomobility and rail transit

Shared micromobility services have undergone rapid growth in cities throughout the world, including expansions in bike sharing and e-scooter sharing services. Shared micromobility provides a potential complement to public transit by accommodating first and last-mile trips. I analyze detailed data on shared, dockless bikes and e-scooters from Seattle, Washington. I find micromobility vehicles cluster near Seattle's rail transit stations. During the study period, Seattle expanded its rail system into a new section of the city. I use the system expansion as a natural experiment to provide evidence of complementarity between shared micromobility and public transit. Using a differencein-difference strategy I find that, after a new light rail station opened, the flow of new micromobility vehicles increased significantly within a 5 min walking radius of the station. I provide causal evidence that local rail transit increases the use of dockless micromobility vehicles.

Impact of Light Rail: A Spatial-Temporal Assessment of Neighboring Residential Property Values in Los Angeles

This research examines the impact of light rail stations on housing market by analyzing the 1993–2013 single-family home sale transactions in the City of Los Angeles, California. The study period was divided into seven 3-year periods, and the area was divided into three different groups by income level: low-, middle-, and high-income. The result shows that the opening of light railways increased property values in general. It also revealed the differentiated impacts by neighborhood income levels.

Distance decay and public transportation usage among select professional Seattle sport fans

Sport organizations are engaging in more advanced environmental sustainability efforts to reduce their environmental impacts. In particular, sport organizations and venues can align their environmental goals with the surrounding city’s environmental objectives. In this study, we examine the relationship between the city and the various sport venues given the city’s agenda to reduce pollution by encouraging the use of public transport. Through ticket purchase data and GIS analysis, we examine how the city capacity helps sport venues fulfill their environmental goals to reduce the environmental impact from fan transportation. We identified the geographical fragmentation of sport fans and found that most fans live beyond five miles of a light rail station. This distance decay from the station makes fans reliant on another form of transportation. Researchers and practitioners can use this approach to leverage internal data and GIS analyses to understand the influence of geographical segmentation of their fans and the influence of this distribution on the environmental impact of fans. This analysis also provides the foundation for future researchers to further examine transportation behaviors of sport fans and the effect of distance decay from transportation stations on sustainable transportation choices.

Sustainable transport choices in public transit access: Travel behavior differences between university students and other young adults

This research investigates the socioeconomic and travel characteristics of student transit users in comparison to other young adults and quantifies behavioral differences in public transit access between these two population groups. Using data from a 2015 system-wide on-board survey in the Denver-Aurora region, CO, we seek to understand whether college and university students make more environmentally sustainable choices when accessing bus and light rail transit as well as identify the determinants of their choices. Our results indicate that student transit riders live in larger households with more vehicles per household member and are located substantially farther from the city center and the light rail compared to other young adults. The majority of student light rail users drive alone to light rail stations and typically do not park at the station that is the closest to their home. On the other hand, most other young adults walk to light rail stations. We also find that travel time and vehicle ownership per household member have a significantly lower impact on student choices. The identified travel differences and behavioral variations between the two population groups may be associated with the lack of affordable housing for students in the central and transit-rich neighborhoods of large metropolitan areas.

Urban Transport: A Proposal of Light Rail Transit (LRT) System in Lahore

Given the broadening experience with the little thought of subordinate petrol stores and the regular aftereffects of eating up it, the extending yearns for better available transportation structure proceeds throughout the planet. An enormous proportion of adventures and resources is being mixed into the progression of transportation structures, including light rail, as the necessity for better and faster transportation is compared with the monetary improvement. Regardless, there is a certified shortfall of appreciation concerning the basic weaknesses, similarly to their impact on introducing these establishment projects. As a result, execution results that are lower than the measures are customary in rail transportation, and money-related or social benefit of light rail ventures get sidetracked enormously dependent on what is, for the most part, expected. In an enormous number of these cases, either the overall cost of the endeavor winds up being much higher, or the help winds up being unquestionably not actually at first decided. This research targets decreasing such an opening in the composition by contemplating the problematic thought of the interest. Even more expressly, this examination proposes a real options-based framework for the attainability assessment of the potential spaces of light rail stations. In any case, it measures the interest for each proposed station region, considering the endogenous weaknesses related to the assessment of interest. Second, the chance of different station improvement circumstances is researched using the net analysis method. Third, a real choices examination is done on various improvement circumstances by pondering the expected advantages of joining flexibility in the new development. Fourth, considering the level and nature of the weakness in the station interest for each space, the financial benefits of joining flexibility for the station improvement are assessed. Using a relevant examination approach, the proposed model is applied for a station region on the Lahore light rail system. The results suggest that seeing the huge weaknesses at a starting stage and combining versatility into the structure design pays off in exact circumstances. Lahore's nascent light rail transit (LRT) system will model many other Pakistan urban transportation projects. As the region's transportation systems' capacity to convey people outstrips the increase of metropolitan populations, the demand for light rail shows no signs of waning.

Significance of metro stations and their surroundings: Hong Kong in the anti-extradition protests

Social movements such as the yearlong anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong provide useful and precious materials for us to revisit and visualize social and political significance of metro and light rail stations and their surroundings. We used a mixed-methods approach to draw various useful information from police records, newspapers, social media, and/or site audits to compile a list of large-scale protests and sit-ins occurred in Hong Kong between June and August 2019. We attempt to show (1) in high-density and transit-reliant cities like Hong Kong, transit services play an important role in people's daily mobility on both normal days and protest days; (2) on protest days, transit services, related facilities (e.g., entrances, lifts, and platforms) and surrounding areas can become the focuses/battlefields for both the government and the protesters; (3) we still know little about how protests and transit services/usage are related but smartcard data can help us fathom the issue.

Shared automated vehicle fleet operations for first-mile last-mile transit connections with dynamic pooling

Shared automated vehicles (SAVs) have the potential to promote transit ridership by providing efficient first-mile last-mile (FMLM) connections through reduced operational costs to fleet providers and lower out-of-pocket costs to riders. To help plan for a future of integrated mobility, this paper investigates the impacts of SAVs serving FMLM connections, as a mode that provides flexibility in access/egress decisions and is well coordinated with train station schedules. To achieve this objective, a novel dynamic pooling algorithm was introduced to match SAVs with riders while coordinating the riders' arrival times at the light-rail station to a known train schedule. Microsimulations of SAVs and travelers throughout two central Austin neighborhoods show how larger service areas, higher levels of SAV demand, and longer arrival times between successive trains require larger SAV fleet sizes and higher SAV utilization rates to deliver close traveler wait times. Four-person SAVs appear to perform similar to 6-seat SAVs but will cost less to provide. Using a dynamic pooling algorithm tightly coordinated with train arrivals (every 15 min) delivers 87% of travelers to their stations in time to catch the next train, while uncoordinated assignments deliver just 58% of travelers in time.

Light Rail and Neighborhood Change: Comparative Perspectives of Residents, Local Media, and Other Stakeholders

Rail transit impacts on adjacent neighborhoods are contested. Through the lens of New Urbanism and sustainable urban development, this article offers a critical analysis of different perceptions of neighborhood changes occurring after the opening of a new light rail line in Charlotte, North Carolina. We conducted 15 interviews with representatives in planning, transportation, and real estate; 11 focus groups with 75 residents living close to a light rail station; and a content analysis of 86 local news articles. Although the various stakeholders do not represent homogeneous groups, light rail investments and associated neighborhood changes are typically viewed positively by planners, developers, and local media but have received mixed responses from residents. We tie this into a broader discussion about putting New Urbanism into practice. Besides furthering academic discussions, this article can inform local planning and policy in areas of transportation, housing, and economic development.

Land use uncertainty in transportation forecast

Using an integrated land use and travel model system implemented for the Puget Sound region in Washington state, a Bayesian Melding technique is applied to represent variations in land use outcomes, and is propagated into travel choices across a multi-year agent-based simulation. A scenario is considered where zoned capacity is increased around light rail stations. Samples are drawn from the posterior distribution of households to generate travel model inputs. They allow for propagation of land use uncertainty into travel choices, which are themselves assessed for uncertainty by comparing against observed data. Resulting travel measures of zonal vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita and light rail station boardings indicate the importance of comparing distributions rather than point forecasts. Results suggest decreased VMT per capita in zones near light rail stations and increased boardings at certain stations with existing development, and less significant impacts around stations with lower initial development capacity. In many cases, individual point level comparisons of scenarios would lead to very different conclusions. Altogether, this finding adds to a line of work demonstrating the policy value of incorporating uncertainty in integrated models and provides a method for assessing these variations in a systematic way.

Effect of design code and evacuation information on strategic location of Shelter in Place (SIP) in light rail station

ABSTRACT In this situation, it is necessary to establish and manage a SIP (Shelter In Place) by utilizing existing facilities rather than increasing the number of evacuation facilities. These facilities can be used for their general purposes and used as a SIP during emergencies. This study uses BIM software to model a light rail station and examine the elements of the facility that can affect the evacuation time to reach SIP. The purpose is to understand how structural standards affect the design of SIP using direct simulation. The study compares how domestic standards differ from overseas standards and validate whether the national standards are satisfactory. Since the proposed procedure is based on rational human behavior analysis through direct simulation, it is expected to be a safer and faster mode of evacuation in case of CBRE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive attacks) situations if applied to existing infrastructure.

Building-Information-Modeling Based Approach to Simulate Strategic Location of Shelter in Place and Its Strengthening Method.

It is important to consider establishing a shelter in place (SIP) using existing facilities to prepare for unpredictable and no-notice disasters. In this study, we evaluate the building-information-modeling (BIM)-based approach to simulate the strategic location of SIP and its strengthening method. BIM software was used to model a light rail station and analyze the elements of the facility that can affect the evacuation time to reach the SIP. The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of structural standards on the design of SIPs using a direct simulation. The differences between domestic and overseas standards were analyzed. An analysis was carried out to evaluate whether national specifications are satisfactory. As the proposed evacuation method is based on a rational human behavior analysis through a direct simulation, it was going to be a safer and faster route of evacuation in the case of physical terror attack situations for existing infrastructure, Furthermore, the SIP design is considered where reinforcement of the SIP structure is necessary. Three types of reinforcing were considered. Here, the use of high-strength, high-ductility concrete proved to be an effective method to improve the impact resistance of reinforced concrete walls and recommended for strengthening reinforced concrete members.

Impacts of California Proposition 47 on crime in Santa Monica, California.

We examine patterns of reported crime in Santa Monica, California before and after the passage of Proposition 47, a 2014 initiative that reclassified some non-violent felonies as misdemeanors. We also investigate impacts of the opening of four new light rail stations in 2016 and of increased community-based policing starting in late 2018. Our statistical analyses of reclassified crimes—larceny, fraud, possession of narcotics, forgery, receiving/possessing stolen property—and non-reclassified ones are based on publicly available reported crime data from 2006 to 2019. These analyses examine reported crime at various levels: city-wide, within eight neighborhoods, and within a 450-meter radius of the new transit stations. Monthly reported reclassified crimes increased city-wide by approximately 15% after enactment of Proposition 47, with a significant drop observed in late 2018. Downtown exhibited the largest overall surge. Reported non-reclassified crimes fell overall by approximately 9%. Areas surrounding two new train stations, including Downtown, saw significant increases in reported crime after train service began. While reported reclassified crimes increased after passage of Proposition 47, non-reclassified crimes, for the most part, decreased or stayed constant, suggesting that Proposition 47 may have impacted reported crime in Santa Monica. Reported crimes decreased in late 2018 concurrent with the adoption of new community-based policing measures. Follow-up studies needed to confirm long-term trends may be challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically changed societal conditions. While our research detects changes in reported crime, it does not provide causative explanations. Our work, along with other considerations relevant to public utility, respect for human rights, and existence of socioeconomic disparities, may be useful to law enforcement and policymakers to assess the overall effect of Proposition 47.

Opportunities and challenges for small businesses in new transit neighborhoods: Understanding impacts through in‐depth interviews

AbstractProximity to light rail stations may be an asset to small businesses if it increases foot traffic and customers, or it may present a challenge in the face of rising rents and threats of commercial gentrification. In this paper, we examine this dynamic through in‐depth interviews with small business owners in proximity to new transit stations in Phoenix, Arizona; Seattle, Washington; and Charlotte, North Carolina to probe the opportunities and challenges faced within these locations. Overall, more challenges were raised including perceptions of an increased homeless population around stations, elevated rents, and increased vehicular traffic. Positive factors included increased foot traffic and proximity to customers.

The local labour market effects of light rail transit

Many US cities have made large investments in light rail transit in order to improve commuting networks. I analyse the labour market effects of light rail in four US metros. I propose a new instrumental variable to overcome endogeneity in transit station location, enabling causal identification of neighbourhood effects. Light rail stations are found to drastically improve employment outcomes in the surrounding neighbourhood. To incorporate endogenous sorting by workers, I estimate a structural neighbourhood choice model. Light rail systems tend to raise rents in accessible locations, displacing lower skilled workers to isolated neighbourhoods, which reduces aggregate metropolitan employment in equilibrium.