[sustran] Linking Transportation Invest-ments to Land Values - First results of a group enquiry

[Eric Britton]

Dear Friends,

Some weeks back I posted a note on this forum with a brief statement of a
topic on which we wished to exchange ideas and information with others on
this list. In all, we received about twenty responses, the contents of which
I have followed up and integrated into a short report on this topic which
will be posted today on our new @Access - Sustainable Transportation Forum
at http://www.ecoplan.org/access.  You will see it there under LINKS, where
it has been placed for your handy use and eventual comment.

I attach the draft summary for your eventual comments and reactions - and of
course we would be interested to continue these conversations either here on
this list or on the @Access Forum which exists for these purposes.  Indeed,
the main finding of our enquiry, as you will see below, is that there may be
excellent reasons for giving this particular topic more time, thought and
work.  Moreover, it offers a great training ground for young transport
planners, students of cities, and even investigative journalists.

Finally - might any of you be interested in participating in a voice
conference on this topic?  If you go into @Access you will see that we have
a handy device for doing just this, along with a full set of instructions
which some of you may be interested in looking at.  If there is any interest
at all, I thought that we might consider an informal session toward the end
of the day on Thursday the 12th - which would be at a time in which we could
be joined by any eventual North American colleagues.

I look forward to sharing what you have to say or suggest on this, and would
like to thank those of you who have already replied with your ideas and
input for your kindness in doing just that. And of course if you wish to
share this note with any colleagues whom you feel it might serve, kindly do.


With all good wishes,

Eric Britton

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LINKING TRANSPORTATION INVESTMENTS TO LAND VALUES


Summary:

* Robert Ayres, a professor of environment and management at INSEAD, asked
Eric Britton of ecopl at n if useful information might be found via the
Internet on a specific subject: the availability of data drawn from
experience showing eventual relationships between specific transportation
investments and projects, and real estate values in the place where they
were supposed to have beneficial impacts.1  (The following thirty page
report recapitulates the result of this search.)
* The main finding of this brief international electronic inquiry is that
there does not appear to be very much around by way of solid data on the
topic.
* Around the world the idea of improving real estate values is often given
great play in the build up of a new transport project or investment, but
once the funds have been acquired and the project actually built, few
sponsors, agencies or places appear to make the effort to verify what has
actually taken place in that instance.
* It is understood that such analyses are not necessarily so easy to do nor
so clear in their findings, since a city is not a laboratory and the
conditions of ceteris paribus simply do not hold. That said, the means for
carrying our this sort of ex post analysis are not hard to come by, and
indeed it would be most useful for transportation researchers and policy
makers to have access to solid data on this subject.
* The actual technique of study however is likely to depend on a good dose
of detective work in each place, since much of the needed data will have to
be ferreted out fro non-published sources (real estate ads in papers,
interviews with key sources in that place, inspection of transactions
records, etc.).
* Solid international data on this subject could be highly useful, including
for making the case of the sort of "softer" transportation projects and
investments that so often can make a real difference in the quality of life
in a place (traffic calming, strategic parking, pedestrian policies, public
transport realignment,  home zones, play streets and the like).
* We do not know of the existence of any models that may have been
constructed to permit the easy manipulation and analysis of such project
data for planning or other purposes, but it is not hard to see that such a
model could be quite useful.
* We have opened up a special discussion forum on this topic which we intend
to maintain over the remainder of the year on the @Access - Sustainable
Transportation Forum at http://www.ecoplan.org/access, in an attempt to
build on and extend these first exchanges on a transportation matter which
we consider to be in the public interest.  This first report is being posted
there for use and comment.