Does metro proximity promote happiness? Evidence from Shanghai
Wan Li
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2680
Bindong Sun
East China Normal University
Chun Yin
Tinglin Zhang
Qianqian Liu
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2018.1286
Keywords: metro proximity, happiness, self-selection, Shanghai
Abstract
Although an increasing number of scholars are evaluating rail transit benefits, there have been surprisingly few studies of the links between metro proximity and happiness. The principal objective of this paper is to assess the benefits of metro proximity for individual’s happiness. A key challenge to empirically answering this question is the fact that residential location is likely to be the result of self-selection, i.e., personal preference, such that living around a rail station can increase residents’ happiness. Taking advantage of the largely exogenous residential locations of those who bought their house 10 years earlier than the operation of their nearest metro station and those households living in non-market housing in Shanghai, we find proximity to a subway station robustly promotes happiness at the individual level. These results suggest that the development of rail transit and transit-oriented development (TOD) are promising ways to increase happiness.References
Abou-Zeid, M. (2001). Measuring and modeling activity and travel well-being. Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Retrieved from https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/55151
Abou-Zeid, M., & Ben-Akiva, M. (2012). Travel mode switching: Comparison of findings from two public transportation experiments. Transport Policy, 24, 48–59.
Abou-Zeid, M., Witter, R., Bierlaire, M., Kaufmann, V., & Ben-Akiva, M. (2012). Happiness and travel mode switching: Findings from a Swiss public transportation experiment. Transport Policy, 19, 93–104.
Anderson, M. L. (2014). Subways, strikes, and slowdowns: The impacts of public transit on traffic congestion. The American Economic Review, 104, 2763–2796.
Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J. S. (2008). Mostly harmless econometrics: An empiricist's companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Banister, D., & Thurstain-Goodwin, M. (2011). Quantification of the non-transport benefits resulting from rail investment. Journal of Transport Geography, 19, 212–223.
Baum-Snow, N., & Kahn, M. E. (2005). Effects of urban rail transit expansions: Evidence from sixteen cities, 1970-2000. Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 147–206.
Bhat, C., Handy, S., Kockelman, K., Mahmassani, H., Chen, Q., & Weston, L. (2000). Urban accessibility index: Cumulative opportunities. Research report. Retrieved from http://ctr.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubs/4938_1.pdf
Bowes, D. R., & Ihlanfeldt, K. R. (2001). Identifying the impacts of rail transit stations on residential property values. Journal of Urban Economics, 50, 1–25.
Bowling, A. (2005). Measuring health: A review of quality of life measurement scales. New York: Open University Press.
Bray, I., & Gunnell, D. (2006). Suicide rates, life satisfaction and happiness as markers for population mental health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 333–337.
Brereton, F., Clinch, J. P., & Ferreira, S. (2008). Happiness, geography and the environment. Ecological Economics, 65, 386–396.
Cao, J., & Cao, X. (2014). The impacts of LRT, neighborhood characteristics, and self-selection on auto ownership: Evidence from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Urban Studies, 51, 2068–2087.
Cao, X. J., & Ettema, D. F. (2014). Satisfaction with travel and residential self-selection: How do preferences moderate the impact of the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line? Journal of Transport and Land Use, 7, 93–108.
Cao, X., & Lou, S. (2017). When and how much did the Green Line LRT increase single-family housing values in St. Paul, Minnesota? Journal of Planning Education and Research, forthcoming.
Chen, Y., & Whalley, A. (2012). Green infrastructure: The effects of urban rail transit on air quality. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 4, 58–97.
Choi, J., Coughlin, J., & D'Ambrosio, L. (2013). Travel time and subjective well-being. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2357, 100–108.
Combs, T. S., & Rodríguez, D. A. (2014). Joint impacts of bus rapid transit and urban form on vehicle ownership: New evidence from a quasi-longitudinal analysis in Bogotá, Colombia. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 69, 272–285.
De Vos, J., Mokhtarian, P. L., Schwanen, T., van Acker, V., & Witlox, F. (2016). Travel mode choice and travel satisfaction: Bridging the gap between decision utility and experienced utility. Transportation, 43, 771–796.
De Vos, J., Schwanen, T., van Acker, V., & Witlox, F. (2013). Travel and subjective well-being: A focus on findings, methods and future research needs. Transport Reviews, 33, 421–442.
Debrezion, G., Pels, E., & Rietveld, P. (2007). The impact of railway stations on residential and commercial property value: A meta-analysis. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 35, 161–180.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
Duarte, A., Garcia, C., Giannarakis, G., Limão, S., Polydoropoulou, A., & Litinas, N. (2010). New approaches in transportation planning: Happiness and transport economics. Netnomics, 11, 5–32.
Ettema, D., Friman, M., Gärling, T., Olsson, L. E., & Fujii, S. (2012). How in-vehicle activities affect work commuters’ satisfaction with public transport. Journal of Transport Geography, 24, 215–222.
Ettema, D., Gärling, T., Eriksson, L., Friman, M., Olsson, L. E., & Fujii, S. (2011). Satisfaction with travel and subjective well-being: Development and test of a measurement tool. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, 14, 167–175.
Ewing, R., & Cervero, R. (2001). Travel and the built environment: A synthesis. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1780, 87–114.
Ewing, R., & Cervero, R. (2010). Travel and the built environment: A meta-analysis. Journal of the American Planning Association, 76, 265–294.
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2000). Happiness, economy and institutions. The Economic Journal,110, 918–938.
Glaeser, E. L., Gottlieb, J. D., & Ziv, O. (2016). Unhappy cities. Journal of Labor Economics, 34, 129–182.
Goel, D., & Gupta, S. (2015). The effect of metro expansions on air pollution in Delhi. The World Bank Economic Review, 31, 271–294.
Huang, X., Cao, X. J., Yin, J., & Cao, X. (2017). Effects of metro transit on the ownership of mobility instruments in Xi’an, China. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 52, 495–505.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science, 306, 1776–1780.
Layard R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. London: Penguin Books.
Lewis-Workman, S., & Brod, D. (1997). Measuring the neighborhood benefits of rail transit accessibility. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1576, 147–153.
Leyden, K. M., Goldberg, A., & Michelbach, P. (2011). Understanding the pursuit of happiness in ten major cities. Urban Affairs Review, 47, 861–888.
Martínez, L. M. G., & Viegas, J. M. (2012). The value capture potential of the Lisbon Subway. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 5, 65–82.
Mohammad, S. I., Graham, D. J., Melo, P. C., & Anderson, R. J. (2013). A meta-analysis of the impact of rail projects on land and property values. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 50, 158–170.
Mokhtarian, P. L., & Cao, X. (2008). Examining the impacts of residential self-selection on travel behavior: A focus on methodologies. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 42, 204–228.
Morris, E. A. (2011). Access and outcomes: Transportation, location, and subjective well-being. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Retrieved from http://uctc-access.net/research/UCTC-DISS-2011-07.pdf
Morris, E. A., & Guerra, E. (2015). Are we there yet? Trip duration and mood during travel. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, 33, 38–47.
Nie, P., & Sousa-Poza, A. (2016). Commute time and subjective well-being in urban China. China Economic Review, forthcoming.
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., & Mazelis, J. M. (2016). Urbanism and happiness: A test of Wirth’s theory of urban life. Urban Studies, forthcoming.
Olsson, L. E., Gärling, T., Ettema, D., Friman, M., & Fujii, S. (2013). Happiness and satisfaction with work commute. Social Indicators Research, 111, 255–263.
Pedersen, T., Friman, M., & Kristensson, P. (2011). Affective forecasting: Predicting and experiencing satisfaction with public transportation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41, 1926–1946.
Reardon, L., & Abdallah, S. (2013). Well-being and transport: Taking stock and looking forward. Transport Reviews, 33, 634-657.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727.
Sallis, J. F., Saelens, B. E., Frank, L. D., Conway, T. L. Slymen, D. J., Cain, K. L., & Kerr, J. (2009). Neighborhood built environment and income: Examining multiple health outcomes. Social Science & Medicine, 68,1285–1293.
Shanghai Institute for Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Development. (2015). Annual report of Shanghai integrated traffic in 2015. Traffic and Transportation, 31, 7–11.
St-Louis, E., Manaugh, K., van Lierop, D., & El-Geneidy, A. (2014). The happy commuter: A comparison of commuter satisfaction across modes. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, 26,160–170.
Stutzer A., & Frey, B. S. (2008). Stress that doesn't pay: The commuting paradox. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110, 339–366.
Wang, D., & Lin, T. (2014). Residential self-selection, built environment, and travel behavior in the Chinese context. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 7, 5–14.
Wu, W. (2014). Does public investment improve homeowners’ happiness? New evidence based on micro surveys in Beijing. Urban Studies, 51, 75–92.
Wu, W. (2015). Rail access and subjective well-being: Evidence from quality of life surveys. Journal of Comparative Economics, 43, 456–470.
Zhai, B., Mao, Q., Zhang, J., Xie, Y., & Chen, X. (2014). An empirical study of the factors associated with residents’ outdoor activities. Urban Development Studies 21, 54–61. [In Chinese]
Zhang Y. J., Zheng. S. Q, Sun, C., & Wang, R. (2017). Does subway proximity discourage automobility? Evidence from Beijing. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 52, 506–517.
Zhao, P. (2014). The impact of the built environment on bicycle commuting: Evidence from Beijing. Urban Studies, 51,1019–1037.
