Citation

Filippova O, Sheng M. J. Transp. Geogr. 2020; 86: e102780.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102780

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Dubbed 'The City of Cars', congestion is a prominent issue in Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system - the Northern Busway - was implemented in 2008. The 6.2-km (km) busway network services the northern suburbs and provides a link to the Central Business District (CBD). This research aims to assess the impact of the Northern Busway on nearby residential property values. Spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR) modelling is used to examine the accessibility impacts of the BRT under the difference - in - differences (DID) framework alongside a typical OLS and a strictly spatial model. We have observed two main findings. Firstly, the average sale price for properties in the treatment group (within 800 m of the Northern Busway) increased by approximately 3.69% as a result of the opening of the Northern Busway. Second, consistent with previous literature, we find that OLS estimates suffer from high spatial autocorrelation bias, while co-integrating spatial and temporal dependencies within a STAR model improves the precision of estimation. While the models produced a relatively modest accessibility premium on house prices, given traditional importance of private cars coupled with high income levels in the case study area, it would take a generational shift to make a significant impact on house prices as the area becomes more desirable due to reduced traffic congestion/travel time.

Language: en

Keywords

Bus rapid transit; Difference-in-differences; Land use; Residential property values; Spatial autoregressive error term hedonic model; Spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR)