Accessibility is a fundamental concept in theories of metropolitan spatial structure. Urban economic models explain urban structure as a function of access to jobs; accessibility is capitalised into land values, which in turn explain the population distribution. Studies of residential land values show that many factors contribute to the value of a given location: the characteristics of the housing unit, its location with respect to social and environmental amenities, as well as access to jobs, services and other economic opportunities. Empirical studies typically use job access as a proxy for more generalised access to economic activities. However, jobs represent many different activities, from retail shopping to heavy manufacturing, and the value of access to these activities may be positive or negative. In this paper, accessibility measures based on industry sectors have been developed, allowing the separating out of possible different effects. Their impacts are tested on residential land values using data from the Los Angeles region. A multilevel modelling approach is used in order to control for neighbourhood-level attributes common to multiple properties. It is found that the various access measures have different and significant effects on land values, but attributes of the dwelling unit, together with access to the coast, explain most of the variation. The multilevel model is confirmed; there is significant correlation among properties within the same neighbourhood.

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Freight modeling, Truck traffic, Commodity flows,

These papers are preliminary in nature: their purpose is to stimulate discussion and comment. Therefore, they are not to be cited or quoted in any publication without the express permission of the author.

The impacts of a rail transit system on residential property values have been examined for many metropolitan areas in the United States, China, and other countries, yet there have been few comparison studies between countries. Studies have reported both the positive effects of rail transit resulting from improved accessibility as well as the nuisance effects from noise, pollution, crime, and unsightliness. The net effects of a rail transit system could be mixed, and there has been no agreement on which would dominate. This study used METRORail in Houston, Texas, and the Metro in Shanghai, China, as empirical cases and compared their effects on nearby residential property values. A hedonic price model with ordinary linear regression was used in the case study of Shanghai's rail transit lines. The Houston case study applied ordinary linear regression and multilevel regression techniques to examine the hierarchical structures of spatial data explicitly. The modeling results from both cases suggest that the overall effects of rail transit lines on residential property values are significantly positive. Notable variations of rail transit effects were also observed at various distance ranges and time spans.