IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/uctcwp/qt5x2863g2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Federal Transit Subsidy Policy on Investment Decisions: The Case of San Francisco's Geary Corridor

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Jianling
  • Wachs, Martin

Abstract

In the United States, federal funding for public transit often accounts for a large proportion of a local agency's budget, especially for capital investments. For this reason, local governments can be expected to plan a portfolio of projects that maximize federal contributions. This study examines the financial effects of federal transit subsidy policy on local transit investment decisions. Data from a System Planning Study for the Geary Corridor in San Francisco are used as an illustration. It is found that federal transit subsidy policy provides financial incentives for local decision-makers to select capital-intensive investment options that may not be efficient or effective. While federal financial incentives are not the only factor influencing local investment decisions, some reform of the current subsidy policy may be necessary to reduce the incentive for ineffective use of public resources.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt5x2863g2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5x2863g2.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frankena, Mark W., 1987. "Capital-biased subsidies, bureaucratic monitoring, and bus scrapping," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 180-193, March.
    2. Cervero, Robert & Landis, John, 1997. "Twenty years of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system: Land use and development impacts," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 309-333, July.
    3. Moore, James E., 1993. "Ridership and cost on the Long Beach-Los Angeles Blue Line Train," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 139-152, April.
    4. Lem, Lewison L. & Li, Jian-Ling & Wachs, Martin, 1994. "Comprehensive Transit Performance Indicators," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8m272447, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Brian A. Cromwell, 1989. "Capital subsidies and the infrastructure crisis: evidence from the local mass-transit industry," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 25(Q II), pages 11-21.
    6. Obeng, Kofi & Talley, Wayne K. & Colburn, Christopher, 1995. "The Effects of Subsidies on Public Transit Long-Run Costs," Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Transportation Research Forum, vol. 35(01).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jianling Li & Martin Wachs, 2004. "The effects of federal transit subsidy policy on investment decisions: The case of San Francisco's Geary Corridor," Transportation, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 43-67, February.
    2. Karlaftis, Matt G. & McCarthy, Patrick, 1998. "Operating subsidies and performance in public transit: an empirical study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 359-375, September.
    3. Bhattacharjee, Sutapa & Goetz, Andrew R., 2016. "The rail transit system and land use change in the Denver metro region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 440-450.
    4. Pierre Filion & Kathleen McSpurren, 2007. "Smart Growth and Development Reality: The Difficult Co-ordination of Land Use and Transport Objectives," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(3), pages 501-523, March.
    5. Avenali, Alessandro & Catalano, Giuseppe & D'Alfonso, Tiziana & Matteucci, Giorgio, 2020. "The allocation of national public resources in the Italian local public bus transport sector," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Sun, Lu & Liu, Xinmin, 2023. "Mining of interactions between travel demand and land use mixture using multi-source data," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 629(C).
    7. Atkinson-Palombo, Carol & Kuby, Michael J., 2011. "The geography of advance transit-oriented development in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, 2000–2007," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 189-199.
    8. Yinjie He & Biao Liu & Chengyou Xu & Dafang Wu, 2025. "Literature Review on Public Transport and Land Use: Based on CiteSpace Statistical Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, May.
    9. 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.
    10. Mejia-Dorantes, Lucia & Lucas, Karen, 2014. "Public transport investment and local regeneration: A comparison of London׳s Jubilee Line Extension and the Madrid Metrosur," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 241-252.
    11. Papa, Enrica & Bertolini, Luca, 2015. "Accessibility and Transit-Oriented Development in European metropolitan areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 70-83.
    12. Zhirong Jerry Zhao & Kirti Vardhan Das & Kerstin Larson, 2012. "Joint development as a value capture strategy in transportation finance," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 5(1), pages 5-17.
    13. Aspa Gospodini, 2005. "Urban development, redevelopment and regeneration encouraged by transport infrastructure projects: The case study of 12 European cities," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(7), pages 1083-1111, October.
    14. Guthrie, Andrew & Fan, Yingling, 2016. "Developers' perspectives on transit-oriented development," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 103-114.
    15. Hurst, Needham B. & West, Sarah E., 2014. "Public transit and urban redevelopment: The effect of light rail transit on land use in Minneapolis, Minnesota," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 57-72.
    16. Zhu, Yi & Diao, Mi, 2016. "The impacts of urban mass rapid transit lines on the density and mobility of high-income households: A case study of Singapore," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 70-80.
    17. 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 qt9jd6r1t9, University of California Transportation Center.
    18. Karlaftis, Matthew & McCarthy, Patrick, 1999. "The Effect of Privatization on Public Transit Costs," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 27-43, July.
    19. Tabea S Sonnenschein & Simon Scheider & Siqi Zheng, 2022. "The rebirth of urban subcenters: How subway expansion impacts the spatial structure and mix of amenities in European cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(4), pages 1266-1282, May.
    20. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean & Legros, Diègo, 2024. "Standing strong? The causal impact of metro stations on service firms’ survival," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt5x2863g2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/itucbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.