IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/qvwpg.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before-After, Experimental-Control Evaluation in Los Angeles

Author

Listed:
  • Boarnet, Marlon G.
  • Wang, Xize

    (National University of Singapore)

  • Houston, Douglas

Abstract

This paper uses a before-after, experimental-control group method to evaluate the impacts of the newly-opened Expo light rail transit line in Los Angeles on personal vehicle GHG emissions. We applied the California Air Resources Board’s EMFAC 2011 emission model to estimate the amount of daily average CO2 emissions from personal vehicle travel for 160 households across two waves, before and after the light rail opened. The 160 households were part of an experimental – control group research design. Approximately half of the households live within ½ mile of new Expo light rail stations (the experimental group) and the balance of the sampled households live beyond ½ mile from Expo light rail stations (the control group). Households tracked odometer mileage for all household vehicles for seven days in two sample waves, before the Expo Line opened (fall, 2011) and after the Expo Line opened (fall, 2012). Our analysis indicates that opening the Expo Line had a statistically significant impact on average daily CO2 emissions from motor vehicles. We found that the CO2 emission of households who reside within ½ mile of an Expo Line station was 27.17 percent smaller than those living more than ½ mile from a station after the opening of the light rail, while no significant difference exists before the opening. A difference-in-difference model suggests that the opening of the Expo Line is associated with 3,145 grams less of household vehicle CO2 emissions per day as a treatment effect. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the emission reduction effect is also present when the experimental group of households is redefined to be those living within a kilometer from the new light rail stations.

Suggested Citation

  • Boarnet, Marlon G. & Wang, Xize & Houston, Douglas, 2017. "Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before-After, Experimental-Control Evaluation in Los Angeles," SocArXiv qvwpg, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qvwpg
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qvwpg
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/62b0107d72b7661872cc0c21/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/qvwpg?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marlon Boarnet, 2011. "A Broader Context for Land Use and Travel Behavior, and a Research Agenda," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 197-213.
    2. Kenneth A. Small & Kurt Van Dender, 2007. "Fuel Efficiency and Motor Vehicle Travel: The Declining Rebound Effect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-52.
    3. Qing Su & Joseph S. DeSalvo, 2008. "The Effect Of Transportation Subsidies On Urban Sprawl," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 567-594, August.
    4. Harvey J. Miller, 2010. "The Data Avalanche Is Here. Shouldn’T We Be Digging?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 181-201, February.
    5. Zhan Guo & Asha Agrawal & Jennifer Dill, 2011. "Are Land Use Planning and Congestion Pricing Mutually Supportive?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 232-250.
    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. Marlon G. Boarnet & Xize Wang & Douglas Houston, 2022. "Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before-After, Experimental-Control Evaluation in Los Angeles," Papers 2206.12610, arXiv.org.
    2. Marlon G. Boarnet & Xize Wang & Douglas Houston, 2017. "Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before‐After, Experimental‐Control Evaluation In Los Angeles," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 523-539, June.
    3. Liang Guo & Shuo Yang & Qinghao Zhang & Leyu Zhou & Hui He, 2023. "Examining the Nonlinear and Synergistic Effects of Multidimensional Elements on Commuting Carbon Emissions: A Case Study in Wuhan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-28, January.
    4. Dillon, Harya S. & Saphores, Jean-Daniel & Boarnet, Marlon G., 2015. "The impact of urban form and gasoline prices on vehicle usage: Evidence from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 23-33.
    5. Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp & Mark D. Partridge & Marlon G. Boarnet, 2013. "The declining role of the automobile and the re-emergence of place in urban transportation: The past will be prologue," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 237-253, June.
    6. Andrew Schouten, 2022. "Residential relocations and changes in vehicle ownership," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 89-113, February.
    7. Sheldon, Tamara L. & Dua, Rubal, 2018. "Gasoline savings from clean vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 418-424.
    8. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    9. Ding, Yu & Lu, Huapu, 2016. "Activity participation as a mediating variable to analyze the effect of land use on travel behavior: A structural equation modeling approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 23-28.
    10. Sentenac-Chemin, Elodie, 2012. "Is the price effect on fuel consumption symmetric? Some evidence from an empirical study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 59-65.
    11. Biying Yu & Junyi Zhang & Akimasa Fujiwara, 2016. "Who rebounds in the private transport sector? A comparative analysis between Beijing and Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 43(3), pages 561-579, May.
    12. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    13. Zolnik, Edmund J., 2012. "Estimates of statewide and nationwide carbon dioxide emission reductions and their costs from Cash for Clunkers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 271-281.
    14. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve, 2015. "Living up to expectations: Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 100-116.
    15. Steven Spears & Marlon G Boarnet & Douglas Houston, 2017. "Driving reduction after the introduction of light rail transit: Evidence from an experimental-control group evaluation of the Los Angeles Expo Line," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(12), pages 2780-2799, September.
    16. Burke, Paul J. & Batsuuri, Tsendsuren & Yudhistira, Muhammad Halley, 2017. "Easing the traffic: The effects of Indonesia’s fuel subsidy reforms on toll-road travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 167-180.
    17. Yuliya Lovcha & Alejandro Perez-Laborda, 2017. "Structural shocks and dynamic elasticities in a long memory model of the US gasoline retail market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 405-422, September.
    18. González, Rosa Marina & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Rodríguez-López, Jesús & Marrero, Ángel S., 2019. "Analyzing CO2 emissions from passenger cars in Europe: A dynamic panel data approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1271-1281.
    19. Qing Su, 2017. "Travel Demand Management Policy Instruments, Urban Spatial Characteristics, and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Travel in the US Urban Areas," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(3), pages 157-166.
    20. Orea, Luis & Llorca, Manuel & Filippini, Massimo, 2015. "A new approach to measuring the rebound effect associated to energy efficiency improvements: An application to the US residential energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 599-609.

    More about this item

    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:osf:socarx:qvwpg. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.