Skip to main content

Better Economies

  • Chapter
Beyond Mobility

Abstract

Connections—between and within cities—are vital to sustained economic growth, prosperity, and healthy living. Country roads connect farmers to markets and agricultural extension services, allowing the sale of crop surpluses and increasing food security. Metro lines connect skilled labor to good-paying downtown jobs. Bikeways also have utilitarian value plus the added bonus of promoting active travel and providing access to nature and the great outdoors. For avid cyclists, they make work–live–play balance possible. Decades of research convincingly shows that transport infrastructure is among the most powerful tools available for growing local and regional economies and enhancing quality of life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Peter Kresl and Balwant Singh, “Urban Competitiveness and US Metropolitan Centres,” Urban Studies 49, no. 2 (2012): 239–54.

  2. 2.

    Siemens AG, “Megacities Report,” 2007, http://www.citymayors.com/development/megacities.html.

  3. 3.

    The Economist Intelligence Unit, “Liveanomics: Urban Liveability and Economic Growth,” September 2010, https://www.eiuperspectives.economist.com/sites/default/files/LON%20-%20IS%20-%20Philips%20liveable%20cities%20Report%2002%20WEB.pdf.

  4. 4.

    Katherine Levine Einstein and David M. Glick, “Mayoral Policy-Making: Results from the 21st Century Mayor Leadership Survey” (Boston: Boston University, Initiative on Cities, October 2014).

  5. 5.

    Katherine Einstein, David Glick, and Conor Le Banc, “2016 Menino Survey of Mayors” (Boston: Boston University Initiative on Cities, 2017).

  6. 6.

    World Bank, Tanzania Economic Update 2014, 5th ed., 2013, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/393381468122079213/pdf/PRIORITY00000005th0Issue01900602014.pdf.

  7. 7.

    Peter Hall, Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century, 3rd ed. (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2002); Peter Hall, Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism (London: Routledge, 2014); Robert J. Rogerson, “Quality of Life and Competitiveness,” Urban Studies 36, no. 5–6 (1999): 969–85; Tim Whitehead, David Simmonds, and John Preston, “The Effect of Urban Quality Improvements on Economic Activity,” Journal of Environmental Management 80, no. 1 (2006): 1–12.

  8. 8.

    Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization: Culture, Technology, and Urban Order (London, Weidenfeld ’ Nicolson, 1998).

  9. 9.

    Geoffrey Booth, Transforming Suburban Business Districts (Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 2001).

  10. 10.

    Ann Markusen and Greg Schrock, “The Distinctive City: Divergent Patterns in Growth, Hierarchy and Specialization,” Urban Studies 43, no. 8 (2006): 1301–23.

  11. 11.

    Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books, 2002).

  12. 12.

    Michael Storpher and Michael Manville, “Behaviour, Preferences and Cities: Urban Theory and Urban Resurgence,” Urban Studies 43, no. 8 (2006): 1247–48; Edward Glaeser and Joshua D. Gottlieb, “The Economics of Place Making Policies,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 39, no. 1 (2008): 155–253.

  13. 13.

    Ronald D. Brunner, et al., “Improving Data Utilization: The Case-Wise Alternative,” Policy Sciences 20, no. 4 (1987): 365–94.

  14. 14.

    Brad Broberg, “The New Norm: The Real Estate World Has a New Look as the Economy Recovers,” On Common Ground (Summer 2011): 4–9.

  15. 15.

    National Association of Realtors, 2011 NAR Community Preference Survey (Washington, DC: National Association of Realtors, 2011).

  16. 16.

    Broberg, “The New Norm,” 6.

  17. 17.

    Ania Wiekowski, “Back to the City,” Harvard Business Review, May 2010, http://hbr.org/2010/05/back-to-the-city/ar/1, accessed April 12, 2017.

  18. 18.

    James F. Sallis, et al., “An Ecological Approach to Creating Active Living Communities,” Annual Review of Public Health 27 (2006): 297–322.

  19. 19.

    Daniel Kahneman, et al., “A Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method,” Science 306, no. 5702 (2004): 1776–80.

  20. 20.

    Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, Happiness and Economics. How the Economy and Institutions Affect Well-Being (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002).

  21. 21.

    Frontier Group, “Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People Are Driving Less and What It Means for Transportation Policy” (Washington, DC: Frontier Group, 2012).

  22. 22.

    Brian A. Clark, “What Makes a Community Walkable,” On Common Ground (Winter 2017): 12–17.

  23. 23.

    Lisa Rayle et al., “App-Based, On-Demand Ride Services; Comparing Taxi and Ridesourcing Trips and User Characteristics in San Francisco” (Berkeley: University of California Transportation Center), UCTC-FR-2014-08, http://www.uctc.net/research/papers/UCTC-FR-2014-08.pdf, accessed January 7, 2015.

  24. 24.

    National Association of Realtors, 2013 Community Preference Survey (Washington, DC; NAR, 2013), https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2013/2013-community-preference-press-release.pdf; Brad Broberg, “The Walkable Demand,” On Common Ground (Winter 2017): 4–11.

  25. 25.

    Broberg, “The Walkable Demand.”

  26. 26.

    National Association of Realtors, 2015 Community Preference Survey (Washington, DC: NAR, 2015), https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2015/nar-psu-2015-poll-press-release.pdf.

  27. 27.

    Christopher Leinberger and Michael Rodriguez, “Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros” (Washington, DC: Smart Growth America, 2016).

  28. 28.

    Christopher Leinberger, “DC: The WalkUP Wake-Up Call” (Washington, DC: The George Washington School of Business, 2012).

  29. 29.

    John Renne, “The TOD Index,” December 2016, http://www.TODIndex.com.

  30. 30.

    John Renne, “Changing Preferences for Transportation and Transit-Oriented Communities Signal a Gradual Move to a Post-Oil Based Society,” The European Financial Review (August–September 2016): 65–68.

  31. 31.

    Broberg, “The Walkable Demand”; Leinberger and Rodgriguez, “Foot Traffic Ahead.”

  32. 32.

    Brad Broberg, “Where Are The New Jobs Going?” On Common Ground (Summer 2016): 4–6.

  33. 33.

    Jeffrey R. Kenworthy and Felix B. Laube, An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities: 1960–1990 (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1999).

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 632.

  35. 35.

    Jeffrey Kenworthy, “Decoupling Urban Car Use and Metropolitan GDP Growth,” World Transport Policy and Practice 19, no. 4 (2013): 8–21.

  36. 36.

    Chuck Kooshian and Steve Winkelman, “Growing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change and Prosperity” (Washington, DC: Center for Clean Air Policy, 2011).

  37. 37.

    Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy, The End of Automobile Dependence: How Cities Are Moving Beyond Car-Based Planning (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015).

  38. 38.

    QuantEcon, “Driving the Economy: Automotive Travel, Economic Growth, and the Risks of Global Warming Regulations” (Portland, OR: Cascade Policy Institute, 2009).

  39. 39.

    Remy Prud’homme and Chang-Woon Lee, “Sprawl, Speed and the Efficiency of Cities,” Urban Studies 36, no. 11 (1999): 1849–58; Robert Cervero, “Efficient Urbanisation: Economic Performance and the Shape of the Metropolis,” Urban Studies 38, no. 10 (2001): 1651–71.

  40. 40.

    The 2014 Mercer Quality of Life Worldwide City Report ranked Zurich number two, behind Vienna; see http://www.mercer.com/newsroom/2014-quality-of-living-survey.html, accessed January 6, 2015.

  41. 41.

    Robert Cervero, The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1998).

  42. 42.

    David Ashauer, “Highway Capacity and Economic Growth,” Economic Perspectives (September 1990): 14–24; Marlon Boarnet, “Highways and Economic Productivity: Interpreting Recent Evidence,” Journal of Planning Literature 11, no. 4 (1997): 476–86.

  43. 43.

    Boarnet, “Highways and Economic Productivity”; Saurav Dev Bhatta and Matthew P. Drennan, “The Economic Benefits of Public Investment in Transportation: A Review of Recent Literature,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 22, no. 3 (2003): 288–96.

  44. 44.

    Cambridge Systematics, Robert Cervero, and David Aschuer, Economic Impact Analysis of Transit Investments: Guidebook for Practitioners (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, Transit Cooperative Research Program, Report 35, National Research Council, 1998).

  45. 45.

    Genevieve Giuliano, “Land Use Impacts of Transportation Investments: Highways and Transit,” in The Geography of Urban Transportation, ed. Susan Hanson and Genevieve Giuliano (New York: Guilford, 2004) pp. 237–73.

  46. 46.

    Robert Cervero, “Transport Infrastructure and Global Competitiveness: Balancing Mobility and Livability,” Annals, AAPSS 626 (November 2009): 210–25.

  47. 47.

    Marlon G. Boarnet and Andrew F. Haughwout, “Do Highways Matter: Evidence and Policy Implications of Highway’s Influences on Metropolitan Development” (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, 2000).

  48. 48.

    Richard Voith, “Changing Capitalization of CBD-Oriented Transportation Systems: Evidence from Philadelphia, 1970–1988,” Journal of Urban Economics 33, no. 3 (1993): 361–76.

  49. 49.

    Robert Cervero, “Effects of Light and Commuter Rail Transit on Land Prices: Experiences in San Diego County,” Journal of the Transportation Research Forum 43, no. 1 (2004): 121–38.

  50. 50.

    Carol Atkinson-Palombo, “Comparing the Capitalization Benefits of Light-Rail Transit and Overlay Zoning for Single-Family Houses and Condos by Neighborhood Type in Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona,” Urban Studies 47, no. 11 (2010): 2409–26; Michael Duncan, “Comparing Rail Transit Capitalization Benefits for Single-Family and Condominium Units in San Diego, California,” Transportation Research Record 2067 (2008): 120–30.

  51. 51.

    Saksith Chalermpong and Kaiwan Wattana, “Rent Capitalization of Access to Rail Transit Stations; Spatial Hedonic Models of Office Rent in Bangkok,” Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies 8 (2009): 926–40.

  52. 52.

    Robert Cervero and Jin Murakami, “Rail + Property Development in Hong Kong: Experiences and Extensions,” Urban Studies 46, no. 10 (2009): 2019–43.

  53. 53.

    Foster Vivien and Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, “Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation” (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010).

  54. 54.

    Kenneth Gwilliam, Cities on the Move: A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy Review (Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2002).

  55. 55.

    Robert Cervero and Mark Hansen, “Induced Travel Demand and Induced Road Investment: A Simultaneous Equation Analysis,” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy 36, no. 3 (2002): 469–90; Gilles Duranton and Matthew A. Turner, “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities,” The American Economic Review 101, no. 6 (October 1, 2011): 2616–52.

  56. 56.

    Hiroaki Suzuki, Robert Cervero, and Kanako Iuchi, Transforming Cities with Transit (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2013).

  57. 57.

    David Banister, “The Sustainable Mobility Paradigm,” Transport Policy 15 (2008): 74; Hall, Good Cities, Better Lives.

  58. 58.

    D. Gordon Bagby, “The Effects of Traffic Flow on Residential Property Values,” Journal of the American Planning Association 46, no. 1 (1980): 88–94.

  59. 59.

    Kenneth Button, Transport Economics, 3rd ed. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010).

  60. 60.

    Carmen Hass-Klau, “Impact of Pedestrianization and Traffic Calming,” Transport Policy 1, no. 1 (1993): 21–31.

  61. 61.

    Sally Cairns, Stephen Atkins, and Phil Goodwin, “Disappearing Traffic? The Story So Far,” Municipal Engineer 151, no. 1 (2002): 13–22.

  62. 62.

    Robert Cervero, “Urban Reclamation and Regeneration in Seoul, South Korea,” in Physical Infrastructure Development: Balancing the Growth, Equity and Environmental Imperatives, ed. William Ascher and Corinne Krupp (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), chapter 7.

  63. 63.

    Chang-Deok Kang and Robert Cervero, “From Elevated Freeway to Urban Greenway: Land Value Impacts of Seoul, Korea’s CGC Project,” Urban Studies 46, no. 13 (2009): 2771–94.

  64. 64.

    Robert Cervero and Chang-Deok Kang, “Bus Rapid Transit Impacts on Land Uses and Land Values in Seoul, Korea,” Transport Policy 18, no. 1 (2011): 102–16.

  65. 65.

    Kang and Cervero, “From Elevated Freeway to Urban Greenway.”

  66. 66.

    Myungjun Jang and Chang-Deok Kang, “The Effects of Urban Greenways on the Geography of Office Sectors and Employment Density in Seoul, Korea,” Urban Studies 53, no. 5 (2016): 1022–41.

  67. 67.

    Robert Cervero, Junhee Kang, and Kevin Shively, “From Elevated Freeways to Surface Boulevards: Neighborhood and Housing Price Impacts in San Francisco,” Journal of Urbanism 2, no. 1 (2009): 31–50.

  68. 68.

    Whitehead, Simmonds, and Preston, “The Effect of Urban Quality Improvements on Economic Activity.”

  69. 69.

    Richard Florida, Cities and the Creative Class (New York: Routledge, 2005); Dionysia Lambiri, Bianca Biagi, and Vincente Royuela, “Quality of Life in the Economic and Urban Economic Literature,” Social Indicators Research 84, no. 1 (2007): 1–25; Janet Kelly, et al., “Placemaking as an Economic Development Strategy for Small and Midsized Cities,” Urban Affairs Review 53, no. 3 (2017): 435–62.

  70. 70.

    John Kain and John Quigley, “Measuring the Value of Housing Quality,” Journal of the American Statistical Association 65, no. 330 (1970): 532–48; Paul Chesire and Stephen Sheppard, “On the Price of Land and the Value of Amenities,” Economica 62, no. 246 (1995): 247–67.

  71. 71.

    Paul K. Asabere, George Hachey, and Steven Grubaugh, “Architecture, Historic Zone, and the Value of Homes,” Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 2, no. 3 (1989): 181–95; Kerry D. Vandell and Jonathan S. Lane, “The Economics of Architecture and Urban Design: Some Preliminary Findings,” Real Estate Economics 17, no. 2 (1989): 235–60.

  72. 72.

    Harry Frech and Ronald N. Lafferty, “The Effect of the California Coastal Commission on Housing Prices,” Journal of Urban Economics 16, no. 1 (1984): 105–23.

  73. 73.

    Janet E. Kohlhase, “The Impact of Toxic Waste Sites on Housing Values,” Journal of Urban Economics 30, no. 1 (1991): 1–26.

  74. 74.

    A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, “Amenities and Property Values in a Model of an Urban Area,” Journal of Public Economics 5, no. 1–2 (1976): 119–29.

  75. 75.

    Molly Epsey and Kuame Owusu-Edusei, “Neighborhood Parks and Residential Property Values in Greenville, South Carolina,” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 33, no. 3 (1002): 487–92.

  76. 76.

    Margot Lutzenhiser and Noelwah R. Netusil, “The Effect of Open Spaces on a Home’s Sales Price,” Contemporary Economic Policy 19, no. 3 (2001): 291–98.

  77. 77.

    Benjamin Bolitzer and Noelwah Netusil, “The Impact of Open Spaces on Property Values in Portland, Oregon,” Journal of Environmental Management 59, no. 3 (2000): 185–93.

  78. 78.

    Soren T. Anderson and Sarah E. West, “Open Space, Residential Property Values, and Spatial Context,” Regional Science and Urban Economics 36, no. 6 (2006): 773–89; Carolyn Dehring and Neil Dunse, “Housing Density and the Effect of Proximity to Public Open Space on Aberdeen, Scotland,” Real Estate Economics 34, no. 4 (2006): 553–66.

  79. 79.

    Edward L. Glaeser, Jed Kolko, and Albert Saiz, “Consumer City,” Journal of Economic Geography 1, no. 1 (2001): 27–50.

  80. 80.

    Rena Sivitanidou, “Urban Spatial Variation in Office-Commercial Rents: The Role of Spatial Amenities and Commercial Zoning,” Journal of Urban Economics 38, no. 1 (1995): 23–49.

  81. 81.

    Mark Eppli and Charles Tu, Valuing the New Urbanism (Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 1999); Christopher Leinberger, The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2007); Keith Bartholomew and Reid Ewing, “Hedonic Price Effects of Pedestrian- and Transit-Designed Development,” Journal of Planning Literature 26, no. 1 (2011): 18–34.

  82. 82.

    Mark Eppli and Charles Tu, “An Empirical Examination of Traditional Neighborhood Development,” Real Estate Economics 29, no. 3 (2001): 485–50; Pnina O. Plaut and Marlon G. Boarnet, “New Urbanism and the Value of Neighborhood Design,” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 20, no. 3 (2003): 254–65.

  83. 83.

    Honogwei Dong, “Were Home Prices in New Urbanist Neighborhoods More Resilient in the Recent Housing Downturn?,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 35, no. 1 (2015): 5–18.

  84. 84.

    Harrison Fraker, The Hidden Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods: Lessons from Low-Carbon Communities (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2013).

  85. 85.

    Reid Ewing and Otto Clemente, Measuring Urban Design: Metrics for Livable (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2013).

  86. 86.

    Hugh F. Kelly and Andrew Warren, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2015 (Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 2015).

  87. 87.

    David A. Goldberg, “A Prescription for Fiscal Fitness? Smart Growth and the Municipal Bottom Line,” On Common Ground (Summer 2011): 34–38.

  88. 88.

    Robert R. Burchell, et al., “The Cost of Sprawl 2000,” TCRP Report 74 (Washington, DC: Transit Cooperative Research Program, 2002).

  89. 89.

    Pamela Blais, The Economics of Urban Form (Toronto: Greater Toronto Area Task Force, 1996).

  90. 90.

    The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, “The Sustainable Infrastructure Imperative: Financing for Better Growth and Development,” The 2016 New Climate Economy Report (Washington, DC: New Climate Economy, 2016).

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Robert Cervero, Erick Guerra, and Stefan Al

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Cervero, R., Guerra, E., Al, S. (2017). Better Economies. In: Beyond Mobility. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-835-0_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics