IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v29y2013icp11-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do light rail services discourage car ownership and use? Evidence from Census data for four English cities

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Shin S.
  • Senior, Martyn L.

Abstract

The paper examines, using English Census data, the impacts of four light rail schemes opened between 1991 and 2001 on car ownership and travel mode along the rail corridors. The effects of these schemes are isolated by comparing the changes in the new light rail corridors with those in ‘control’ areas. Control areas represent what would have occurred in the light rail corridors if the schemes had not been built. Despite two schemes achieving and even exceeding the forecast ridership, the proportion of households owning multiple cars increased in the light rail corridors and typically by more than in the control areas. Growing rail shares in the light rail corridors have mainly come from buses and the evidence for light rail reducing car use is less clear. This latter finding is of particular significance, given that a major justification for investment in light rail rather than bus schemes is their presumed ability to bring about major modal shift by attracting substantial numbers of car users.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Shin S. & Senior, Martyn L., 2013. "Do light rail services discourage car ownership and use? Evidence from Census data for four English cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 11-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:29:y:2013:i:c:p:11-23
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.12.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692312002943
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.12.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Senior, Martyn L., 2009. "Impacts on travel behaviour of Greater Manchester’s light rail investment (Metrolink Phase 1): evidence from household surveys and Census data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 187-197.
    2. Bhattacharjee, Sutapa & Goetz, Andrew R., 2012. "Impact of light rail on traffic congestion in Denver," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 262-270.
    3. Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia & Banerjee, Tridib, 2000. "The Blue Line Blues: Why the Vision of Transit Village May Not Materialize Despite Impressive Growth in Transit Ridership," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8jd663ht, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Knowles, Richard D., 2012. "Transit Oriented Development in Copenhagen, Denmark: from the Finger Plan to Ørestad," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 251-261.
    5. Knowles, Richard D., 2007. "What future for light rail in the UK after Ten Year Transport Plan targets are scrapped?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 81-93, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Engebretsen, Øystein & Christiansen, Petter & Strand, Arvid, 2017. "Bergen light rail – Effects on travel behaviour," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 111-121.
    2. Kołoś, Arkadiusz & Taczanowski, Jakub, 2016. "The feasibility of introducing light rail systems in medium-sized towns in Central Europe," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 400-413.
    3. Timo Liljamo & Heikki Liimatainen & Markus Pöllänen & Riku Viri, 2021. "The Effects of Mobility as a Service and Autonomous Vehicles on People’s Willingness to Own a Car in the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Wang, Jingjing & Lu, Yi & Yang, Yiyang & Peng, Jiandong & Liu, Ye & Yang, Linchuan, 2023. "Influence of a new rail transit line on travel behavior: Evidence from repeated cross-sectional surveys in Hong Kong," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. Ali Enes Dingil & Federico Rupi & Domokos Esztergár-Kiss, 2021. "An Integrative Review of Socio-Technical Factors Influencing Travel Decision-Making and Urban Transport Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Yazdi, Asieh Haieri, 2019. "Technological frames and the politics of automated electric Light Rail Rapid Transit in Poland and the United Kingdom," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Seidenglanz, Daniel & Kvizda, Martin & Nigrin, Tomáš & Tomeš, Zdeněk & Dujka, Jiří, 2016. "Czechoslovak light rail — Legacy of socialist urbanism or opportunity for the future?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 414-429.
    8. Piras, Francesco & Sottile, Eleonora & Tuveri, Giovanni & Meloni, Italo, 2022. "Does the joint implementation of hard and soft transportation policies lead to travel behavior change? An experimental analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Deng, Yiling & Zhao, Pengjun, 2022. "The impact of new metro on travel behavior: Panel analysis using mobile phone data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 46-57.
    10. Kwoka, Gregory J. & Boschmann, E. Eric & Goetz, Andrew R., 2015. "The impact of transit station areas on the travel behaviors of workers in Denver, Colorado," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 277-287.
    11. Zhang, Hui & Zhan, Bo & Ouyang, Min, 2024. "Enhancing accessibility through rail transit in congested urban areas: A cross-regional analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Liu, Changqing & Li, Lei, 2020. "How do subways affect urban passenger transport modes?—Evidence from China," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    13. Ali Enes Dingil & Joerg Schweizer & Federico Rupi & Zaneta Stasiskiene, 2019. "Updated Models of Passenger Transport Related Energy Consumption of Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-16, July.
    14. Kühne, Kathrin & Mitra, Suman K. & Saphores, Jean-Daniel M., 2018. "Without a ride in car country – A comparison of carless households in Germany and California," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 24-40.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. D. Knowles, Richard & Ferbrache, Fiona, 2016. "Evaluation of wider economic impacts of light rail investment on cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 430-439.
    2. Kołoś, Arkadiusz & Taczanowski, Jakub, 2016. "The feasibility of introducing light rail systems in medium-sized towns in Central Europe," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 400-413.
    3. Engebretsen, Øystein & Christiansen, Petter & Strand, Arvid, 2017. "Bergen light rail – Effects on travel behaviour," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 111-121.
    4. Sivakumaran, Karthik & Li, Yuwei & Cassidy, Michael & Madanat, Samer, 2014. "Access and the choice of transit technology," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 204-221.
    5. Cao, Xinyu (Jason) & Schoner, Jessica, 2014. "The influence of light rail transit on transit use: An exploration of station area residents along the Hiawatha line in Minneapolis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 134-143.
    6. Li, Guicai & Luan, Xiaofan & Yang, Jiawen & Lin, Xiongbin, 2013. "Value capture beyond municipalities: transit-oriented development and inter-city passenger rail investment in China’s Pearl River Delta," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 268-277.
    7. Ahmad Adeel & Bruno Notteboom & Ansar Yasar & Kris Scheerlinck & Jeroen Stevens, 2021. "Sustainable Streetscape and Built Environment Designs around BRT Stations: A Stated Choice Experiment Using 3D Visualizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-21, June.
    8. Ibraeva, Anna & Correia, Gonçalo Homem de Almeida & Silva, Cecília & Antunes, António Pais, 2020. "Transit-oriented development: A review of research achievements and challenges," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 110-130.
    9. Ali Enes Dingil & Federico Rupi & Domokos Esztergár-Kiss, 2021. "An Integrative Review of Socio-Technical Factors Influencing Travel Decision-Making and Urban Transport Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    10. Abdi, Mohammad Hamed, 2021. "What the newcomers to transit-oriented development are confronted with? Evidence from Iranian policy and planning," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Nilsson, Isabelle & Delmelle, Elizabeth, 2018. "Transit investments and neighborhood change: On the likelihood of change," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 167-179.
    12. Muhammad Aamir Basheer & Luuk Boelens & Rob van der Bijl, 2020. "Bus Rapid Transit System: A Study of Sustainable Land-Use Transformation, Urban Density and Economic Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    13. Alys Solly & Erblin Berisha & Giancarlo Cotella & Umberto Janin Rivolin, 2020. "How Sustainable Are Land Use Tools? A Europe-Wide Typological Investigation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, February.
    14. Raffaello Furlan & Sara Zaina & Shikha Patel, 2021. "The urban regeneration’s framework for transit villages in Qatar: the case of Al Sadd in Doha," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5920-5936, April.
    15. Marie Karen Anderson & Otto Anker Nielsen & Carlo Giacomo Prato, 2017. "Multimodal route choice models of public transport passengers in the Greater Copenhagen Area," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 6(3), pages 221-245, September.
    16. Helen X. H. Bao & Doris Ka Chuen Mok, 2020. "A Link between East and West: How the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link Affects Property Prices in Hong Kong," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 23(3), pages 993-1021.
    17. Fallesen, Peter & Geerdsen, Lars Pico & Imai, Susumu & Tranæs, Torben, 2018. "The effect of active labor market policies on crime: Incapacitation and program effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 263-286.
    18. Chen, Cong & Zhang, Su & Zhang, Guohui & Bogus, Susan M. & Valentin, Vanessa, 2014. "Discovering temporal and spatial patterns and characteristics of pavement distress condition data on major corridors in New Mexico," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 148-158.
    19. Pedro Plasencia-Lozano, 2021. "An Ex Ante Analysis of the Planned Transportation Network in the Region of Extremadura (Spain) by Using Physical Parameters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-32, May.
    20. Wang, Jingjing & Lu, Yi & Yang, Yiyang & Peng, Jiandong & Liu, Ye & Yang, Linchuan, 2023. "Influence of a new rail transit line on travel behavior: Evidence from repeated cross-sectional surveys in Hong Kong," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:29:y:2013:i:c:p:11-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.