The effects of new public projects to expand urban rail transit

Many US cities invest in large public transit projects in order to reduce p rivate vehicle dependence and to reverse the downward trend in public trans it use. Using a unique panel data set for five major cities that upgraded t heir rail transit systems in the 1980s, we estimate new rail transit's impa ct on usage and housing values, using distance as a proxy for transit acces s. New rail transit has a small impact on usage and housing values. This im pact is enough to represent tangible benefits of new transit to nearby resi dents. New transit's benefits are not uniformly distributed. We document wh ich demographic groups are over represented in transit growth areas and the changes in transit usage by different demographic groups. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science S.A. All rights reserved.