The interaction between land use and transportation infrastructure is a topic that has been extensively researched and continues to be of interest as new underlying economic, infrastructure and environmental conditions emerge. In this research, the direct and indirect effects of transportation infrastructure and policies on house prices and rents are studied. Since real estate transaction data are not available, a web-scraping tool was developed to parse house prices and attributes from publicly available resources. Econometric models of two categories were then estimated: (1) hedonic price models, based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and (2) spatial econometric models, such as the spatial regression model (SAR), spatial error (SEM), Durbin (SDM) and autocorrelation (SAC) model and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), which are increasingly used by econometricians in order to capture the effect of the - usually unobserved - spatial factors on house valuation. The results of this research indicate that proximity to transportation infrastructure has a direct impact on house and apartment purchase prices and rents, which is either positive or negative depending on the type of the transportation system. Metro, tram, suburban railway and bus stations affect the prices positively, while ISAP (the old urban railway of Attica) and national rail stations, airports and ports, have a negative effect, due to a number of externalities associated with them, such as noise. The obtained results are consistent with expectations and the literature. While these results cannot be assumed directly transferable to other locations and areas, they could be cautiously used as indications for planning applications (where dedicated models have not been developed). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How do transport infrastructure and policies affect house prices and rents? Evidence from Athens, Greece

In developed countries noise annoyance is an important source of environmental concern. Research on noise annoyance caused by railroad traffic is relatively underdeveloped. Here, a causal chain model is presented in which railroad traffic density, noise emission, noise immission and noise annoyance are causally related. Noise level, habituation and railroad usage are determinant factors. Noise annoyance causes social and economic costs, such as property value depreciation. Policy measures, aimed at reducing social and economic costs, are incorporated in various stages of the causal model. These measures can be subdivided into noise regulation and direct prevention measures. Stricter threshold values lead to higher total costs, but may lower social costs per capita. Economic feasibility of policy measures is usually analyzed by means of a cost-benefit case study. Methods of analysis used are diverse and ad hoc. Therefore, results of different case studies are not easily compared in terms of research synthesis.

Railroad noise: economic valuation and policy

Environmental inequities discerned on the basis of cross-sectional analysis are often portrayed as an outcome of inconsiderate or outright malicious facility-siting However, a discussion of the evolution of spatial proximity between noxious facilities and residential areas suggests such proximity is an outcome of more complex processes—though often unrecognised in time By analysing the pattern of environmental conflicts in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan region and following the evolution of five of them, it is shown that many conflicts arise from encroachment of residential development upon facilities originally sited in remote areas In the past, this has led to the exit of some of the more noxious facilities However, this option is becoming obsolete as a result of changes in social and political arrays Thus, the real concerns are over future siting decisions rather than past practices

Eran Feitelson

Papers

Transportation noise, property rights, and institutional structure: the israeli experience in perspective