Light Rail Transit Stations Research Articles

The affordable housing, transportation, and food nexus: Community gardens and healthy affordable living in Calgary

This study examining community gardens in Calgary was initiated in collaboration with the non‐profit organization, Sustainable Calgary, as part of their housing‐transportation‐food nexus initiative. The main research objectives were to determine the socio‐economic demographics of neighbourhoods that support community gardens and the proximity of community gardens to active transportation and public transit. Methods included the use of GIS visualization and quantitative analyses to investigate relationships between demographic variables of neighbourhoods that support community gardens, as well as the accessibility of active transit routes and Light Rail Transit stations. Findings show that community garden neighbourhoods are located in neighbourhoods with significantly fewer visible minorities, higher levels of educational attainment, and more attached dwellings such as apartments and townhomes. The average distance of community gardens from a major bike lane is 330 m, while the average distance from a Light Rail Transit station is 1.78 km. This study suggests potential inequities that may be present within the proliferation of public community gardens based on socio‐economic factors other than economic capital. This paper concludes with a discussion surrounding implications and recommendations to further the equitable expansion of community gardens.

Land Value Capture Modeling in Commercial and Office Areas using a Big Data Approach

Infrastructure development in Indonesia creates massive impacts on the economy. The Light rail transit (LRT) of greater Jakarta (Jabodebek) project has been estimated to have cost more than 29 trillion rupiahs due to land acquisition and route planning. The urban transit development may impact to the price of property including residential, commercials and offices along the route. This research aims to determine variables affecting the price elasticity of property and the correlation to station proximity. Data mining through web scrapping was used to assess the degree of correlation between price elasticity and station location. The result shows that approximately 13% of the commercial property was spread over a distance of 1 km from the LRT station. The closer a property to transit station, the price will be twice cheaper compared to those located further. The findings also show variables that highly contribute to property prices including schools, hospitals, and proximity to some of transit stations located in city center of Jakarta and building density.

Modelling the Needs of Light Rail Transit (LRT) on Transit Oriented Development Area around LRT Stations in Palembang

Various efforts have been made to overcome the problem of congestion in Palembang, one of them is to provide Light Rail Transit (LRT) which has been operating since July 2018. Analysis of the relationship between the needs of LRT, travel characteristics and characteristic of LRT operation is needed to evaluate the LRT level of service. Level of service of LRT can be assessed from route service, integration of LRT modes with other public transportation, travel time and cost of travel demand. Based on this, the research aims to model the need for LRT in Palembang City on the Transit Oriented Development (TOD. TOD is an area that has the potential to be developed into an integrated area between land use and transportation systems including LRT transportation mode in the area. Travel and mode choice characteristics data of respondents are collected on households in the TOD area. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method is used to modelling the needs of LRT. The model can be used to determine the relationship between variables the need of LRT, travel behaviour characteristic and LRT operation characteristics. The result of the study shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between the variables on TOD area around LRT stations in Palembang.

Local Influences on Zonal Rents in Alberta: Implications for Integrated Modeling

A hedonic price model was estimated for residential developments in the province of Alberta in Canada. The model is designed to be used with the Production, Exchange and Consumption Allocation System (PECAS) land use modeling framework, which forecasts future development patterns on each parcel based on developer return-on-investment functions, allocates households and jobs, and calculates economic benefit measures. In PECAS, base year rents by land use zone (LUZ) are a calibration target, while future rents by LUZ are calculated in a bid-rent allocation, so the estimation separates out local effects from neighbourhood (LUZ) effects. Local effects include proximity to busy collectors, light rail transit (LRT) stations, schools, and amenities such as parks, as well as local road and off-road access to the nearest network link. A non-linear treatment was required to separate out the value of land from the value of space, especially on large parcels at low intensities of development. A Bayesian approach was used to 1) incorporate prior knowledge from previous PECAS work in the U.S., and 2) to provide a model that can forecast future prices on any parcel in Alberta, even in areas where certain types of development are not currently sufficient in quantity to confidentally estimate parameters. The estimation quantifies the current price landscape in Alberta by LUZ, showing higher prices (and a tendency for future development, where allowed) in major cities, major oil industry locations, and national parks. It also quantifies the positive impacts of local road access, LRT station proximity, schools, rivers, and natural areas; the negative (nuisance) impact of being too near to busy roads and schools; and the depreciation of older buildings.

An Investigation of Condominium Property Value Uplift around Light Rail Transit Stations Using a Hedonic Pricing Model

This paper aims to investigate the impact of proximity to the nearest light rail transit station on the value of condominium properties in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The paper utilizes a data set of 476 condominium sales occurring in Greater Kuala Lumpur between January 2017 and the second quarter of 2018. Using a hedonic pricing model, housing price was modelled as a function of proximity to the nearest light rail transit station and with regard to other structural and locational attributes. The results suggest that condominium units located within 800 m to the nearest light rail transit station can earn a premium of MYR 172,904 (US$43,226), or 30% of the city’s average home value. The results of this study also indicate that in determining property values, proximity to the nearest light rail transit station is the second-most influential variable compared to other variables. This paper represents an original contribution to the literature in that there has been limited research on the impact of proximity to light rail transit stations on condominium prices in developing countries.

Analysis of Trip Attraction as Land Use Development Effect in Palembang: Case Study on Cinde Traditional Market

The Government of South Sumatera Province built Light Rail Transit (LRT) station in order to facilitate public transport infrastructure in Palembang. One of the LRT station is Cinde station which is located in Cinde traditional market. Currently Cinde traditional market in progress of construction into Cinde Plaza Aldiron modern market that integrated with Cinde LRT Station. The changes in land use has important role to change trip attraction in term of number and characteristics visitor of Cinde Traditional Market area. In this work, the data trip attraction to Cinde traditional market under and after construction process was collected via questionnaire method. Statistical analysis shows that the most influenced trip attraction visitors to Cinde Plaza Aldiron are profession, transportation mode and retail item. In addition, the same factor also influences trip attraction under and after construction. According to the model, it is predicted that the integration of Cinde Plaza Aldiron with LRT mode likely to increase number of Cinde Plaza Aldiron visitors because of additional choice of transportation mode and more option item to buy.

Light rail transit and housing markets in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: Announcement and operations effects using quasi-experimental methods

As planners and engineers in large cities around the United States continue to seek solutions to transportation-related problems such as congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and safe and efficient access to goods and services, light rail transit (LRT) systems have become an increasingly popular option. While LRT has the potential to address these issues, it also has the potential to create negative externalities. This study examines the effects that LRT has had on the single-family residence housing market in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, in both the announcement and operations phases. Using spatially explicit quasi-experimental econometric models, we found that the announcement of the LRT led to increases in price per square feet for properties as distance to LRT station decreases while the price per square foot of properties decreases as distance to LRT station decreases after the system began operations. These results indicate that while land speculation may have resulted from the announcement of the LRT system, homeowners living closest to the stations during operations may have viewed the LRT stations more as a nuisance than a benefit.

Gender and Rail Transit Use: Influence of Environmental Beliefs and Safety Concerns

Research suggests that gender influences attitudes toward both the environment and safety. While pro-environmental attitudes might encourage transit use, safety concerns might discourage transit use if the transit environment is perceived as unsafe. To quantitatively examine how gender, environmental beliefs, and safety concerns jointly affect transit use, results are analyzed from a longitudinal quasi-experimental study which conducted pre- and post-opening travel surveys near a new light rail transit service in Los Angeles. It is found that the influence of safety concerns on transit use is more prominent than that of environmental attitudes, particularly for women. Living closer to a new light rail transit station correlates with an increase in train ridership. This effect, however, is significantly lower for women. The results suggest that to foster transit use, reducing personal safety concerns related to transit may be more effective than increasing public awareness of transportation-related environmental issues, especially for attracting female riders.

Light Rail Transit and Property Values in Kitchener–Waterloo

The impact of announcements about a future light rail transit (LRT) system on residential property prices in Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, is measured. Condominiums with better access to a future LRT station are more valuable both before and after the announcements studied. There is only weak evidence that the LRT-related announcements increased the relative value of condominiums or houses with better access to future LRT stations. The small impact of LRT announcements on the value of property suggests low private net benefits of the future LRT and is consistent with very low rates of transit use in Kitchener–Waterloo.

Foot-based audit of streets adjacent to new light rail stations in Houston, Texas: measurement of health-related characteristics of the built environment for physical activity research

BackgroundActive travel to and from a transit station may provide significant amounts of physical activity and improve health. The ease with which people can traverse the distance to the transit station may impede or support active travel. Therefore, transit stations that have features that are supportive of utilitarian physical activity would be desirable. This study aimed to characterize the built environment surrounding new light rail transit (LRT) stations in the City of Houston, Texas.MethodsIn 2014, we used a series of systematic protocols and a standardized environmental audit instrument, the Analytic Audit Tool, to collect data on segments (streets) that surround 22 LRT stations that were being newly built. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), we assembled all the segments that intersect a 0.25-mile circular buffer around each station for the audit exercise. Several 3- to 4-member teams of trained auditors completed the audit exercise on a subset of these identified segments. Our analysis were descriptive in nature. We provided the frequency distributions of audited features across the study area. We also followed an original algorithm to produce several composite index scores for our study area. The composite index score is indicative of the prevalence of physical activity friendly/unfriendly features in the study area.ResultsIn all, we audited a total of 590 segments covering a total of 218 US Census blocks, and eight City of Houston super neighborhoods. Findings suggest the environment around the new LRT stations may not be supportive of physical activity. In general, the audited segments lacked land use integration; had abandoned buildings, had uneven sidewalks; were not bike-friendly, had minimal presence of public-recreational facilities that would support physical activity; and had significant physical disorder. Notably, certain attractive and comfort features were frequently to usually available.ConclusionsCurrent findings, which will be compared to follow-up audit data, can be useful for future researchers and practitioners interested in the built environment around LRT stations.

Estimating land value uplift around light rail transit stations in Greater Kuala Lumpur: An empirical study based on geographically weighted regression (GWR)

Introducing a rail transit system into an urban region is expected to increase land values, and subsequently, residential property values. Despite this general belief, little is known about the spatial distributional effects of land value uplift. Thus, the goal of this paper is to provide new insights on how proximity to light rail transit stations may affect residential property values in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia using geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results provide information on spatial variations in the effects of a light rail transit system on residential property values. This study utilises GWR to account for spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence. The results suggest that residential property values benefit from the provision of a light rail transit system but with considerable spatial variation over a geographical area. Evidently, proximity to the nearest light rail transit station gives positive premiums of up to 8% for a majority of properties located in lower-middle and upper-middle income neighbourhoods such as Wangsa Maju, Setapak, Keramat, Setiawangsa, Ampang and Sentul. In contrast, the impact of proximity to the nearest light rail transit station for properties located in high-income neighbourhoods such as Petaling Jaya was found to be non-significant. These findings can assist policy makers to better understand how properties around light rail transit stations accrue benefits. However, since the benefit of a light rail transit system on nearby properties varies over a geographical area (and where a positive premium can swing from positive to negative depending on the area), it may be difficult for policy makers to impose a single-value tax if there is a land value capture policy to be considered for implementation.

Light rail transit and economic recovery: A case of resilience or transformation?

The ecological concept of “resilience” has been applied to social and economic systems in researchers’ attempts to understand the extent to which those systems recover after calamity. Resilience strictly speaking can mean little more than carrying on as usual after a period of recovery. It can also mean learning from calamity so that while most functions resume, systems are prepared for the next, similar calamity. But transformation can also occur whereby systems are restructured, abandoning the most vulnerable pre-calamity elements while redirecting resources to new elements better able to withstand known and unknown future calamities. We apply the concepts of resilience and transformation to the seven light rail transit (LRT) systems operating in the U.S. before, during and after the Great Recession. Using shift-share analysis across groups of economic sectors, we trace the share and shift in the share of jobs in those sectors during each of the three time periods. We find that economic activity within 0.50-mile of LRT stations was more resilient during the Great Recession than their metropolitan areas as a whole, and those economies appear to have been transformed such that jobs were shifting substantially more to LRT corridors in the post-recession period than before.

LRT passengers’ responses to advanced passenger information system (APIS) in case of information inconsistency and train crowding

This research explores and attempts to understand transit riders’ behavioural responses towards real-time transit information for two specific situations: the presence of inconsistent information on transit service recovery and the effects of crowded trains during rush hours. A survey was designed and conducted to collect light rail transit (LRT) riders’ behavioural responses in Calgary, Alberta. Multinomial logit models were developed and calibrated to explore the effects of the described scenarios on riders’ responses. The results led to the conclusion that socioeconomic attributes, experience with advanced passenger information system (APIS) system, familiarity with public transit in general and Calgary’s LRT system in particular, and the characteristics of origin LRT stations had strong influences on travellers’ behavioural responses. It was also determined that travellers’ actions vary significantly depending on the purpose of the trip, time of the trip, and weather conditions.

대중교통지향형개발 정책이 경전철역 주변 토지이용변화에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

대중교통지향형개발 정책이 경전철역 주변 토지이용변화에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

The effect of light rail transit service on nearby property values: Quasi-experimental evidence from Seattle

This paper examined the effect of the construction of light rail transit stations on surrounding residential property values in Seattle, Washington. It studied sales of homes in the areas around the seven stations that serve primarily residential areas in the Rainier Valley, using a difference-in-differences regression technique to obtain plausibly causal estimates of the effect of new rail service. For these seven stations, the estimated impact of light rail service was positive for only one station and negative for two stations. Estimated impacts for the other stations were small and statistically insignificant. These results suggest that light rail service did not provide value to the neighborhoods in the Rainier Valley of Seattle. I speculate that the transport service provided by light rail was not a significant improvement relative to the bus lines that serviced the area before light rail was built.

Analysis of pedestrian walking characteristics at vertical facilities in underground train station

Kuala Lumpur is the national capital of Malaysia as well as the center of attraction for people looking for jobs. Thus, in the future people will tend to use public transport including the Light Rail Transit (LRT) more often than driving their vehicle. This is especially so due to critical traffic congestion on the road especially during peak hours. The increasing population in Kuala Lumpur could lead the LRT stations to become more crowded form day to day due to excessive demand. Due to this problem, the facilities provided will not be enough and suitable to cater the space demand. Unfortunately, the limited study was done regarding the pedestrian spaces and facilities at underground LRT in Malaysia. Thus, this paper aims to establish the fundamental understanding of pedestrian behavior at vertical facilities in underground train station.

A Compilation of Song Lyrics Relating to the Family

Five years ago, I began a quest for enjoyment which has evolved and expanded into an epic journey. A ukulele for X-mas quickly gave way to the guitar. While attaining a degree as a sociologist, at 55 years of age, I blossomed to become a musician, poet, author, artist, and performer. With nearly 160 completed pieces of music alone, I have amassed a portfolio any artist would be proud to have. I have composed songs for a Metis language webpage, and painted a wall mural at MacEwan University. I have had song lyrics and stories published. I hold my own on the same stages with some of Edmonton’s finest musicians and poets. Inspiration comes from life’s many ups and downs. I dare to call myself a prodigy since I am self-taught in all my art. However, currently, I am in my 3rd year of psychology, at MacEwan University for a 2nd degree, allowing me to practise music/art therapy. Sweet Baby is a song about anticipating the birth of my first grandchild, yet written through the eyes of the mother to be. Epic Odyssey is my story, events of my life Who Needs TV is also about my life, alcoholism, and family. So Shy is about watching the reactions of children to my busking in the LRT (light rail transit) station in Edmonton, Alberta. The Day My Boyfriend Died, indeed humor, was a black thought put into prose.

How Does Light Rail Transit (LRT) Impact Gentrification? Evidence from Fourteen US Urbanized Areas

This study examines the relationship between light rail transit (LRT) stations and changes in neighborhood characteristics associated with gentrification using spatial regression analyses with longitudinal data across 14 US urbanized areas (UAs). Overall, we do not find evidence of prevalent gentrification in LRT station areas. An analysis of UA-specific impacts shows heterogeneous outcomes across different UAs, particularly: strong transit-oriented development (TOD) effects accompanied by gentrification in San Francisco and TOD with countergentrification in Portland. Our results highlight that different local and regional planning efforts can lead to different types of changes in transit station neighborhoods.

Estimating light-rail transit peak-hour boarding based on accessibility at station and route levels in Wuhan, China

ABSTRACTPromoting public transit is a well-recognized policy for sustainable urban transport development. Transit demand analysis proves to be a challenging task in fast growing cities, partially due to the lack of reliable data and applicable techniques for rapidly changing urban contexts. This paper presents an effort to meet the challenge by developing a framework to estimate peak-hour boarding at light-rail transit (LRT) stations. The core part of the framework is an accessibility-weighted ridership model that multiplies potential demand by integral LRT accessibility. Potential demand around LRT stations is generated by using a distance-decay function. The integral LRT accessibility is a route-level factor that indicates the degree of attractiveness to LRT travel for stations in an LRT corridor. A case study in Wuhan, China, shows that the proposed method produces results useful for improving transit demand analysis.

The effect of light rail transit on land-use development in a city without zoning

Light rail transit (LRT) has become a popular strategy to improve accessibility and mobility in the United States. It has also been touted as a tool to spur urban growth, higher-density development, and revitalization in large, auto-dependent cities like Houston, Texas. Although traditionally known as sprawling and highly auto-oriented, Houston has greatly expanded its light rail system in recent years. The city is also unique in that it is by far the largest city in the United States without zoning ordinances.
 The city of Houston is used as a case study to examine land-use development around LRT stations. Analysis of parcel-level land-use data from 2005–2014 revealed a spike in commercial development along the original light rail corridor, approximately 4 to 10 years after its opening. Land-use development along the newer light rail corridors was more modest and not considerably different than the control corridors. Small changes in the levels of high-density residential housing and land-use mix near light rail stations indicated that efforts to encourage transit-oriented development have not yet had much effect.