IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v94y2021ics096669232100140x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rail transit investments and economic development: Challenges for small businesses

Author

Listed:
  • Tornabene, Sara
  • Nilsson, Isabelle

Abstract

This research explores the impact of a new light rail line on small businesses and small business owners' ability to stay in business. Employing a mixed-method approach including business turnover analysis, surveys, and in-depth interviews in a case study on Charlotte, North Carolina, this research offers insights on the economic development challenges faced by business owners during and beyond the construction phase, showing how the construction of a light rail can permanently alter accessibility and visibility of affected businesses. Contrary to the positive impacts and benefits of light rail transit often celebrated in literature, this study shows that the significant challenges faced by small businesses during and beyond the construction phase have caused commercial displacement and altered the commercial landscape in some neighborhoods along the line. This research highlights the importance of examining practices during the construction phase to assess light rail's impacts on commercial areas. It also offers a deeper understanding of displacement processes, and aims to identify effective strategies for business retention and mitigation programs to support small businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Tornabene, Sara & Nilsson, Isabelle, 2021. "Rail transit investments and economic development: Challenges for small businesses," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:94:y:2021:i:c:s096669232100140x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096669232100140X
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103087?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. Jenny Schuetz, 2015. "Do rail transit stations encourage neighbourhood retail activity?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(14), pages 2699-2723, November.
    2. Bardaka, Eleni & Delgado, Michael S. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2018. "Causal identification of transit-induced gentrification and spatial spillover effects: The case of the Denver light rail," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 15-31.
    3. Lisa Rayle, 2015. "Investigating the Connection Between Transit-Oriented Development and Displacement: Four Hypotheses," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 531-548, July.
    4. Chase Billingham & Barry Bluestone & Stephanie Pollack, 2010. "Maintaining diversity in America's transit-rich neighborhoods: tools for equitable neighborhood change," New England Community Developments, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 1-6.
    5. Mohammad, Sara I. & Graham, Daniel J. & Melo, Patricia C. & Anderson, Richard J., 2013. "A meta-analysis of the impact of rail projects on land and property values," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 158-170.
    6. 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.
    7. Ghebreegziabiher Debrezion & Eric Pels & Piet Rietveld, 2007. "The Impact of Railway Stations on Residential and Commercial Property Value: A Meta-analysis," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 161-180, August.
    8. Joe Grengs, 2005. "The abandoned social goals of public transit in the neoliberal city of the USA," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 51-66, April.
    9. 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.
    10. Billings, Stephen B., 2011. "Estimating the value of a new transit option," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 525-536.
    11. Kristine Laura Canales & Isabelle Nilsson & Elizabeth Delmelle, 2019. "Do light rail transit investments increase employment opportunities? The case of Charlotte, North Carolina," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 189-202, March.
    12. Kevin Credit, 2018. "Transit-oriented economic development: The impact of light rail on new business starts in the Phoenix, AZ Region, USA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(13), pages 2838-2862, October.
    13. Wagner, Gary A. & Komarek, Timothy & Martin, Julia, 2017. "Is the light rail “Tide” lifting property values? Evidence from Hampton Roads, VA," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 25-37.
    14. González, Silvia R. & Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia & Chapple, Karen, 2019. "Transit neighborhoods, commercial gentrification, and traffic crashes: Exploring the linkages in Los Angeles and the Bay Area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 79-89.
    15. Miguel Padeiro & Ana Louro & Nuno Marques da Costa, 2019. "Transit-oriented development and gentrification: a systematic review," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 733-754, November.
    16. Heilmann, Kilian, 2018. "Transit access and neighborhood segregation. Evidence from the Dallas light rail system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 237-250.
    17. Seo, Kihwan & Golub, Aaron & Kuby, Michael, 2014. "Combined impacts of highways and light rail transit on residential property values: a spatial hedonic price model for Phoenix, Arizona," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 53-62.
    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. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean & Legros, Diègo, 2024. "Standing strong? The causal impact of metro stations on service firms’ survival," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    2. Liudan Jiao & Fenglian Luo & Fengyan Wu & Yu Zhang & Xiaosen Huo & Ya Wu, 2022. "Exploring the Interactive Coercing Relationship between Urban Rail Transit and the Ecological Environment," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Liu, Chang & Bardaka, Eleni, 2023. "Transit-induced commercial gentrification: Causal inference through a difference-in-differences analysis of business microdata," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    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. Elina Sukaryavichute & Elizabeth Delmelle & Colleen Hammelman, 2021. "Opportunities and challenges for small businesses in new transit neighborhoods: Understanding impacts through in‐depth interviews," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 1025-1041, June.
    2. Nilsson, Isabelle & Schuch, Johanna C. & Delmelle, Elizabeth C. & Canales, Kristine L., 2020. "Should I stay or should I go? A survey analysis of neighborhood change and residential mobility concerns around new light rail stations in Charlotte, NC," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Chang, Haoliang & Huang, Jianxiang & Yao, Weiran & Zhao, Weizun & Li, Lishuai, 2022. "How do new transit stations affect people's sentiment and activity? A case study based on social media data in Hong Kong," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 139-155.
    4. 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.
    5. Elizabeth Delmelle & Isabelle Nilsson, 2020. "New rail transit stations and the out-migration of low-income residents," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 134-151, January.
    6. Liu, Chang & Bardaka, Eleni, 2023. "Transit-induced commercial gentrification: Causal inference through a difference-in-differences analysis of business microdata," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. John Murray & Eleni Bardaka, 2022. "Evaluating the spatial and temporal distribution of beltway effects on housing prices using difference-in-differences methods," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1963-1998, December.
    8. Pilgram, Clemens A. & West, Sarah E., 2018. "Fading premiums: The effect of light rail on residential property values in Minneapolis, Minnesota," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-10.
    9. Vitor Pestana Ostrensky & Alexandre Alves Porsse & Leonardo Matsuno da Frota, 2022. "Public transport and gentrification. Evidence from São Paulo metro new stations," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(6), pages 254-269, December.
    10. Zhong, Haotian & Li, Wei, 2016. "Rail transit investment and property values: An old tale retold," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 33-48.
    11. Li, Jianling, 2018. "Residential and transit decisions: Insights from focus groups of neighborhoods around transit stations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean, 2023. "The impact of transport infrastructure on firms’ location decision: A meta-analysis based on a systematic literature review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 139-155.
    13. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean & Barla, Philippe, 2022. "Build it and they will come: How does a new public transit station influence building construction?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    14. Qiu, Feng & Tong, Qingmeng, 2021. "A spatial difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the impact of light rail transit on property values," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    15. Zhang, Min, 2023. "Value uplift from transit investment-Property value or land value? A case study of the Gold Coast light rail system in Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 88-98.
    16. Baker, Dwayne Marshall & Kim, Seunghoon, 2020. "What remains? The influence of light rail transit on discretionary income," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. AlQuhtani, Saad & Anjomani, Ardeshir, 2019. "Do rail transit stations affect housing value changes? The Dallas Fort-Worth metropolitan area case and implications," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Murakami, Jin & Villani, Caterina & Talamini, Gianni, 2021. "The capital value of pedestrianization in Asia's commercial cityscape: Evidence from office towers and retail streets," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 72-86.
    19. Schmidt, Adam & Bardaka, Eleni & Thill, Jean-Claude, 2022. "Causal, spatiotemporal impacts of transit investments: Exploring spatial heterogeneity from announcement through long-run operation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 151-169.
    20. Aliyu Ahmad Aliyu & Olurotimi Adebowale Kemiki & Muhammad Umar Bello, 2018. "Transportation Accessibility Benefit and the Dynamic Pattern of Real Estate Prices: Emerging Literature," Traektoriâ Nauki = Path of Science, Altezoro, s.r.o. & Dialog, vol. 4(11), pages 1001-1016, November.

    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:94:y:2021:i:c:s096669232100140x. 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.