On Wednesday, March 2, METRANS Director Genevieve Giuliano and USC Price Ph.D. candidate Eun Jin Shin, presented their research “Is Los Angeles Becoming Transit Oriented?” on the USC Main Campus to an audience of students, faculty, and practitioners. Along with colleague Jenny Scheutz, Giuliano and Shin examined the impact of building rail transit infrastructure on the development of high density, mixed-use housing and commercial activity that is walking distance from stations, and specifically examined if and how the number of jobs or housing market characteristics changed near these stations.

The research group used establishment-level data on employment and property-level data on housing transactions to analyze changes in several employment and housing outcomes, controlling for spatial demographic information. The result of their analysis suggests there is no evidence of changes in employment density, housing sales volume, or new housing development within five years after station opening. However, there does seem to be increased employment density within five to ten years after a subset of stations opened.

The event was co-sponsored by the Association of Students in Planning and Development, a USC graduate student group focused on representing and advancing the interests of students by preserving and elevating the quality of education, and of extracurricular learning, and by hosting and promoting enrichment opportunities offered by the Price School and by professional and academic organizations.

Attendees at the event were particularly interested in the types of measures and controls used in the study, and what might have influenced the decisions of where the stations were located.

ASPD Board Member and Progressive Student Axel Hellman attended Giuliano and Shin's presentation. "Planning students care deeply about the issues of transit-oriented development and land use policies.  So much of our discussion about transit-oriented development is anecdotal, so it is extremely valuable to hear a more objective viewpoint," he said.

"As future planners we need to understand not just the principles of transit-oriented development goals, but also whether policies have or have not worked."

Second year MPP/MPL Student and USC Partnership for an Equitable Los Angeles Co-Chair, Edward Muna attended the talk as well. “The question of whether transit spurs development is frequently studied, however it is interesting that they have worked to document some other positives effects like employment,” he remarked.  “The final conclusion that transit infrastructure may have smaller effects on employment presents an equity concern if we are increasing property values but not seeing commensurate employment effects in Transit Areas.”

Genevieve Giuliano

Genevieve Giuliano, Ph.D., conducts research on relationships between land use and transportation, transportation policy analysis, and information technology applications in transportation. Her current research includes examination of relationships between land use and freight flows, development of applications for transportation system analysis using archived real-time data, and analysis of commercial and residential development around transit stations. She has published over 160 papers, and has presented her research at numerous conferences both within the US and abroad.

Eun Jin Shin

Eun Jin Shin is a Ph.D. candidate at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, with an academic focus on urban spatial structure and transportation. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil, Urban, and Geosystem Engineering from Seoul National University, and her Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her advisor is Gen Giuliano, and her research focuses on the travel behavior of transportation-disadvantaged populations.

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation. She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017. She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].