The Social Justice Impact of the Transit-Oriented Development

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is often considered a solution for automobile dependency in the pursuit of sustainability. Although TOD has shown various benefits as sustainable development and smart growth, there are potential downsides, such as transit-induced gentrification (TIG). Even if there were no displacement issues with TIG, existing residents could be disadvantaged by a TOD due to affordability problems. This study focuses on these potential affordability issues and aims to evaluate the effects of TOD using residents’ discretionary income (DI) as an indicator of affordability. The light rail transit-oriented development (LRTOD) in Phoenix, AZ, is selected because of the timing of the introduction of development and the simplicity of the light rail transit line. In order to counteract problems induced by a non-random location of TODS, propensity score matching is used. The results indicate that LRTOD can give benefit to all TOD residents. Moreover, the effects of LRTOD on discretionary income of various types of households are not statistically significantly different. We have identified the different magnitudes of the effects of TOD between propensity score matching (PSM)-controlled and uncontrolled models. These indicate the existence of the selection bias of TOD implementation, justifying the adoption of the PSM method.