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Twenty years of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system: Land use and development impacts

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  • Cervero, Robert
  • Landis, John
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    Abstract

    Planners of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, the first large-scale urban rail project built in the U.S. since the early part of this century, hoped BART would encourage compact and orderly growth, and spawn a multi-centered settlement pattern. The initial BART impact study, conducted a few years following the system's 1973 opening, concluded that BART played a fairly modest, though not inconsequential, role in shaping metropolitan growth and land-use patterns. This paper summarizes findings from an update of the original BART impact study, examining BART's influences on urban development patterns 20 years after services started. In general, our findings are similar to those of the original impact study. Over the past 20 years, land-use changes associated with BART have been largely localized, limited to downtown San Francisco and Oakland and a handful of suburban stations. Elsewhere, few land-use changes have occurred, either because of neighborhood opposition or a lackluster local real estate market. While BART appears to have helped bring about a more multi-centered regional settlement pattern, such as inducing midrise office development near the Walnut Creek and Concord stations, it has done little to stem the tide of freeway-oriented suburban employment growth over the past two decades. Indeed, recent office additions near East Bay stations pale in comparison to the amount of floorspace built in non-BART freeway corridors. Near several suburban stations, the most notable change has been the addition of multi-family housing. In most instances, local redevelopment authorities helped leverage these projects by providing various financial incentives and assistance with land assemblege. Statistical analyses reveal that the availability of vacant and developable land is an important predictor of whether land-use changes occurred near stations. BART, in and of itself, has clearly not been able to induce large-scale land-use changes, though under the right circumstances, it appears to have been an important contributor. If the Bay Area is to achieve the compact, multi-centered built form that was originally envisaged, we conclude that stronger public policy initiatives will be needed to channel future regional growth to BART corridors.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice.

    Volume (Year): 31 (1997)
    Issue (Month): 4 (July)
    Pages: 309-333

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    Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:31:y:1997:i:4:p:309-333

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    References

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    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    1. Cervero, Robert & Menotti, Val, 1994. "Market Profiles of Rail-Based Housing Projects in California," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt89k664kz, University of California Transportation Center.
    2. Cervero, Robert, 1993. "Ridership Impacts of Transit-Focused Development in California," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8sr9d86r, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Merewitz, Leonard, 1972. "Public Transportation: Wish Fulfillment and Reality in the San Francisco Bay Area," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 78-86, May.
    4. Cervero, Robert & Round, Alfred & Goldman, Todd & Wu, Kang-Li, 1995. "Rail Access Modes and Catchment Areas for the BART System," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt07k76097, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Richard Voith, 1991. "Transportation, Sorting and House Values," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 19(2), pages 117-137.
    6. Cervero, Robert, 1996. "Subcentering and Commuting: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1980-1990," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt7b5919b1, University of California Transportation Center.
    7. Landis, John & Guhathakurta, Subhrajit & Huang, William & Zhang, Ming, 1995. "Rail Transit Investments, Real Estate Values, and Land Use Change: A Comparative Analysis of Five California Rail Transit Systems," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2hf9s9sr, University of California Transportation Center.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:
    1. Murakami, Jin, 2010. "The Transit-Oriented Global Centers for Competitiveness and Livability: State Strategies and Market Responses in Asia," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt44g9t8mj, University of California Transportation Center.
    2. Guerra, Erick & Cervero, Robert & Tischler, Daniel, 2011. "The Half-Mile Circle: Does It Represent Transit Station Catchments?," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt0d84c2f4, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Miquel-Angel Garcia-Lopez, 2011. "The accessibility city. When transport infrastructure matters in urban spatial structure," ERSA conference papers ersa10p521, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Li, Jianling & Wachs, Martin, 2003. "The Effects of Federal Transit Subsidy Policy on Investment Decisions: The Case of San Francisco's Geary Corridor," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5x2863g2, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Laura Fernández-Durán & Alicia Llorca & Nancy Ruiz & Soledad Valero & Vicente Botti, 2011. "The impact of location on housing prices: applying the Artificial Neural Network Model as an analytical tool," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1595, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Cervero, Robert & Sandoval, Onésimo & Landis, John, 2000. "Transportation as a Stimulus to Welfare-to-Work: Private Versus Public Mobility," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt9q97b1tp, University of California Transportation Center.
    7. Guerra, Erick & Cervero, Robert & Tischler, Daniel, 2011. "The Half-Mile Circle: Does It Best Represent Transit Station Catchments?," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt68r764df, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Cervero, Robert & Kang, Chang Deok, 2011. "Bus rapid transit impacts on land uses and land values in Seoul, Korea," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 102-116, January.
    9. Bailey, Keiron & Grossardt, Ted & Pride-Wells, Michaele, 2007. "Community design of a light rail transit-oriented development using casewise visual evaluation (CAVE)," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 235-254, September.
    10. Murakami, Jin, 2010. "The Transit-Oriented Global Centers for Competitiveness and Livability: State Strategies and Market Responses in Asia," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt19034785, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Cervero, Robert & Kang, Chang Deok, 2009. "Bus Rapid Transit Impacts on Land Uses and Land Values in Seoul, Korea," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt4px4n55x, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    12. Michael Duncan, 2011. "The cost saving potential of carsharing in a US context," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 363-382, March.

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