Victoria Perk

Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit Stations on Surrounding Single-Family Home Values Study of East Busway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The development of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems is relatively recent in the United States; however, several systems are operating and many more are being planned. More comprehensive understanding is needed of the relationship between land use and BRT, particularly in comparison with other fixed-guideway modes. This paper describes an effort to quantify the impacts of BRT stations on the values of surrounding single-family homes. The hypothesis is that BRT stations have an impact on property value that is commensurate with rail transit projects, considering the level and permanence of services and facilities. To test that hypothesis, a hedonic regression model was used to estimate the impact of distance to a BRT station on the fair market value of single-family homes. Because many BRT systems operating in the United States may be too new to find evidence of capitalization into property values, data from East Busway, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the oldest operating BRT systems in the country, was used. Decreasing marginal effects were found: moving from 101 to 100 ft from a station increases property value approximately

FLORIDA METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION REPORTS ON TRANSIT CAPACITY AND QUALITY OF SERVICE: FIRST-YEAR EVALUATION

18.90; moving from 1,001 to 1,000 ft increases property value by approximately

Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit in Boston, Massachusetts: Impacts on Sale Prices of Condominiums Along Washington Street

2.71. The results shown in this paper are valid only for the data used in Pittsburghs case. As more BRT systems continue to operate in the United States, this method should be applied to other cities and other types of properties to gain a better understanding of the general impacts of proximity to BRT.

Current Practices in the Use of Service Evaluation Standards at Public Transit Agencies

As an application of the transit quality-of-service framework presented in the first edition of the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM), the Florida Department of Transportation required all metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the state where fixed-route transit service operates to analyze those services on the basis of the six measures identified in the TCQSM: service frequency, hours of service, service coverage, passenger loading, reliability (on-time performance and headway adherence), and transit versus automobile travel time. A first-year evaluation compiles the analyses provided by the participating MPOs and provides an assessment of the aggregate performance of the transit systems. A larger part of the study focused on the examination of the actual process used by the MPOs and transit systems to evaluate their services. Changes recommended to improve and refine the process for future years are presented, based on the first-time experiences of the MPOs. This evaluation serves as a model for other areas in the country interested in applying the customer-oriented assessment of transit based on the TCQSM.

Transit Ridership, Reliability and Retention

As bus rapid transit (BRT) continues to grow in popularity in the United States, a better understanding of the modes impacts on land uses and property values continues to be needed. This research sought to quantify the impacts of access to BRT stations on the sale prices of surrounding condominiums located along Washington Street in Boston, Massachusetts, where Phase 1 of the Silver Line BRT began operating in 2002. The hypothesis that the BRT stations had an impact on market value similar to light rail transit projects (considering the level and permanence of the investment) was tested with a hedonic regression methodology for estimating the impact of access to BRT stations on sale prices of condominium units. A key result was that, for condominium sales in 2007 or 2009, the BRT premium was approximately 7.6%. For condominium sales in 2000 and 2001, before the opening of the Silver Line, no sales premium existed for proximity to the corridor. These results suggest that access to high-quality transit service, not necessarily the mode itself, induces this premium. Although this study is specific to the Boston Silver Line Washington Street corridor, further research into the impacts of BRT is encouraged as a means to provide policy makers and the transit industry with the best information possible for making optimal transit investment decisions in their communities.

Land Use Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit: Effects of BRT Station Proximity on Property Values along the Pittsburgh Martin Luther King, Jr. East Busway

Service standards provide a transit agency with a mechanism to evaluate its service in an objective, consistent, and equitable manner. During these times of shrinking operating budgets, service standards can provide the means by which limited resources are best allocated. Another major objective of service standards is the design and implementation of new service. This project was completed for the Miami-Dade Transit Agency (MDTA) in Southeast Florida. Its purpose was to review the current MDTA service planning guidelines to determine if more formal guidelines or standards should be adopted, develop an updated set of guidelines, and recommend a final set of guidelines and an implementation process. An early step in the development of the service guidelines was to conduct a survey of peer transit systems across North America. The survey identified the existing levels of standards use, including whether the standards are formally adopted, the process of implementing the standards, and their effectiveness in meeting the agency’s goals. The survey results uncovered passionate feelings for and against the use of strict standards among the agencies. Also, those surveyed shared their strategies for persuading their governing bodies to adopt staff recommendations for service adjustments. Public hearing and decision-making processes were also addressed in the survey. It was important to explore the relationships among transit planning staff, the agency’s governing body, and the public.