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The Impact of Light Rail Construction on Regional On-Road CO2 Emissions Per Capita

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  • Credit, Kevin

Abstract

As per capita on-road CO2 emissions continue to rise in the US, a better understanding of the emissions-reduction benefits of building a new transit system is needed. Employing a novel quasi-experimental event study methodology, the results of this paper indicate that after 8 years of operation, construction of a light rail system has led to a small but significant reduction in regional on-road CO2 per capita of 8.4% - 12.9%. These results are robust to selection of control group and are larger than the estimated impact of light rail construction on population density (1.0%), evaluated in a comparative quasi-“placebo” study.

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  • Credit, Kevin, 2025. "The Impact of Light Rail Construction on Regional On-Road CO2 Emissions Per Capita," OSF Preprints euyj6_v2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:euyj6_v2
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/euyj6_v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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