Economic Impacts of Transit Investments, Social Challenges, and Strategies for Sustaining High Ridership

Economic Impacts of Transit Investments, Social Challenges, and Strategies for Sustaining High Ridership

There are multiple short-term and long-term plans for larger and smaller-scale transit investments for the urban areas in North Carolina. However, there has not been a study on how the proposed transit projects are going to impact the urban areas of North Carolina economically. The objectives of this research are to (i) assist North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) with understanding the transformations expected to occur in urban areas because of upcoming transit investments; (ii) quantify the expected magnitude and spatial distribution of the economic impacts of transit investments in North Carolina as well as the anticipation effects of the proposed projects;? (iii) estimate the magnitude and space-time dynamics of the expected socioeconomic changes in the regions close to the proposed projects and methods to prevent and mitigate negative externalities; (iv) identify the data that NCDOT should be collecting as part of the Atlas database before and after project implementation and associated automated tools of data analysis, for being able to evaluate the impacts of public transportation projects; and (v) provide a list of recommendations that are feasible for the state of North Carolina based on previous research and the experiences of other states for station-area policies, land-use development, last-mile solutions, public-private partnerships, and multimodal facilities that will lead to higher transit ridership in North Carolina. The proposed research will provide a clear quantitative understanding of the extent of economic benefits and social externalities incurred by various transit projects throughout North Carolina. This understanding will allow NCDOT to assess the value of the funded projects to businesses, individuals, and communities in North Carolina. Professors Bardaka and Thill are currently conducting research and have published journal articles on the social and economic impacts of transit projects.

• Record URL:
  http://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/research/Pages/ProjectSearch.aspx
• Record URL:
  http://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/research/Pages/ProjDetails.aspx?ProjectID=2020-37

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $295901
• Contract Numbers:

  FHWA/NC 2020-37

• Sponsor Organizations:

  North Carolina Department of Transportation

  Research and Development
  1549 Mail Service Center
  Raleigh, NC  United States  27699-1549
• Managing Organizations:

  North Carolina Department of Transportation

  Research and Development
  1549 Mail Service Center
  Raleigh, NC  United States  27699-1549
• Project Managers:

  Bradley, Curtis

• Performing Organizations:

  North Carolina State University

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Raleigh, North Carolina  United States  27695
• Principal Investigators:

  Bardaka, Eleni

• Start Date: 20190801
• Expected Completion Date: 20210731
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: 2020-37

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic impacts; Externalities; Investments; Public transit; Ridership; Urban areas
• Identifier Terms: North Carolina Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01724951
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: North Carolina Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: FHWA/NC 2020-37
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 11 2019 3:54PM