ABSTRACT
For many Americans, living near high quality rail transit stations provides an array of benefits. These benefits arise from lower transportation expenses, the conveniences of ready access to myriad services, and other non-user benefits. This chapter explores the benefits of transit oriented neighborhoods using economic measurements. It examines a hedonic price function to estimate property values and the impact of proximity to rail transit stations. The chapter presents the history of urban development paradigms. It assesses “new urbanism” and other approaches for livable communities and traces the link with Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). The chapter considers state of the art analytical procedures and techniques used to study the attributes of livable neighborhoods and discusses the results of past research valuing the benefits of livability and access. Urban planners and architects, local government officials, politicians and academics, have placed the promotion and development of “livable” neighborhoods at the center of many public policy debates.
