The Many Dimensions of Historic Preservation Value: National and Local Designation, Internal and External Policy Effects

This analysis examines the internal and external policy effects of national and local register programmes for historic preservation. Robust hedonic pricing models are crucial to informing policy proposals and understanding how property markets relate to urban heritage. Estimating a repeat-sales hedonic model with neighbourhood trends and spatial mixed models, novel to this literature, offers a marked improvement in terms of jointly identifying internal and external policy effects, comparing national and local designations, separating policy from heritage effects and estimating models robust to spatial dependence and trends in hedonic prices. Historic designation variables, while often individually insignificant in the model, are always jointly significant in explaining varying appreciation rates. Local districts exhibit no consistent price impacts across the models. Being located inside a national district confers a price premium that increases over time in the preferred model specification, while prices fall in national districts’ buffers after designation. The sensitivity of results to model specification raises questions about alternative approaches to spatial dependence in the data in the urban historic preservation context. Evidence of the influence of historic district designation on property turnover and renovation investments is also examined

Comparing accessibility and connectivity metrics derived from dedicated pedestrian networks and street networks in the context of Asian cities

Studies that compare accessibility and connectivity metrics derived from pedestrian and street networks have been conducted in urban environments outside of Asia. This creates uncertainty concerning the performance of measures calculated on pedestrian networks globally. The purpose of this research is to: (1) develop a dedicated pedestrian network approach suitable for Asian cities; and (2) further develop understanding of pedestrian accessibility and connectivity by including centrality metrics rarely applied to dedicated pedestrian networks before comparing results across network representations. In total, eight networks were created --one dedicated pedestrian and street network each centred on metro stations in Bangkok, Manila, Osaka, and Taipei chosen to represent different urban typologies. Results indicate substantial differences between values calculated on both networks. Measures that have no distance component are particularly susceptible to how the pedestrian network is represented, while distance-based and centrality measures are less affected and more stable across urban forms

The Price of Preserving Neighborhoods: The Unequal Impacts of Historic District Designation

Policies affecting cultural assets are popular yet imperfectly understood tools to shape local economic development. Historic preservation policies, for example, can have markedly different implications for original residents, prospective residents, and developers, even in the same city. Therefore, merely identifying its average effect can obscure important heterogeneity in its impact. This study examines the property value impacts of local and national historic districts across the distribution of property prices and how those differential impacts vary with the restrictiveness of the policy. A quantile regression model identifies the heterogeneity of effects among higher and lower end properties. The results reveal large differences between national and local districts, interior and buffer properties, and for different property values. These findings highlight the importance of and complexity in how housing markets react to attempts to guide local economic development

The Price of Preserving Neighborhoods: The Unequal Impacts of Historic District Designation

Policies affecting cultural assets are popular yet imperfectly understood tools to shape local economic development. Historic preservation policies, for example, can have markedly different implications for original residents, prospective residents, and developers, even in the same city. Therefore, merely identifying its average effect can obscure important heterogeneity in its impact. This study examines the property value impacts of local and national historic districts across the distribution of property prices and how those differential impacts vary with the restrictiveness of the policy. A quantile regression model identifies the heterogeneity of effects among higher and lower end properties. The results reveal large differences between national and local districts, interior and buffer properties, and for different property values. These findings highlight the importance of and complexity in how housing markets react to attempts to guide local economic development

Analysing the Impact of Pedestrian Network Centrality on Segment-Level Pedestrian Density

Studies have shown that street network centrality measures are capable of explaining a significant proportion of pedestrian activity. These studies typically employ street centreline networks that differ significantly from the networks that pedestrians use to traverse the built environment. Presently, centrality approaches are rarely applied to dedicated pedestrian network (DPNs). This creates uncertainty regarding their ability to explain pedestrian activity when derived from DPNs. This study addresses that gap by investigating the extent to which centrality metrics derived from DPNs can explain observed pedestrian densities, both alone and when controlling for other built environment variables in metro station environments in Asia. In total, four DPNs were created centred on metro stations in Bangkok, Manila, Osaka, and Taipei chosen to represent different urban typologies. Multivariate results show that centrality metrics alone explain a mere 6–24% of observed pedestrian densities when calculated on DPNs. When all factors are considered, the contribution of centrality remained consistent in most study sites but is somewhat reduced with land-use variables and proximity to rail transit revealed as the strongest predictors of pedestrian density. Pedestrian design factors were also frequently associated with pedestrian density. Finally, stronger associations between centrality and pedestrian densities were observed in the denser, more complex pedestrian environments. These findings provide insight into the performance of centrality measures applied to DPNs expanding pedestrian network research in this area

International comparison of the relationship between urban structure and the service level of urban public transportation—A comprehensive analysis in local cities in Japan, France and Germany

It is said that one of the most important keys to realizing a compact city is to develop very convenient urban public transportation and attractive pedestrian spaces, which bring liveliness to the city center. However, existing data is incomplete and not clear enough to clarify the relationship between the development of very convenient urban public transportation systems and compact urban structure. In this study, we quantitatively clarify the relationship between urban structure and the service level of urban public transportation including railways and tramways, and compare them among local cities in Japan, France and Germany, targeting all local cities where the populations are over one hundred thousand. Initially, we investigate urban public transportation frequencies of railways and tramways compared to the distribution of population and pedestrian spaces in city centers of all target cities in Japan, France and Germany. Then, we analyze the relationship between service frequencies at stations of the urban public transportation system and the urban structure following two viewpoints: the spatial distribution of population around the station and the spatial distribution of pedestrian spaces in the city center. As a result, in all three countries, generally the populations of the surrounding areas of stations with higher service frequencies are confirmed to be larger. As for the ratio of the population of the surrounding areas within a radius of 500 m from railway and tramway stations accounting for the population of each city, we showed the ratio of the population in station areas in France and Germany is high compared with that of Japan. Moreover, as for the proximity of pedestrian spaces to railway and tramway stations, we confirmed that the proximity of pedestrian spaces to railway and tramway stations in Japan is not high compared with France and Germany

共有型自動運転車両導入による都市構造の変化および社会的便益に関する研究

日本の地方都市では，公共交通の利用が低迷し，公共交通事業者の経営の悪化が進んでいる．このような状況では，公共交通のサービス水準が低下し，交通弱者が増加すると考えられる．これらの問題を解決する手段として，共有型自動運転車両（SAV）の導入が考えられるが，SAVの導入には，公共交通の補完や交通弱者の移動手段確保などのメリットがある一方，居住地の拡散や公共交通の利用減少などのデメリットもあると考えられる． 本研究では，都市内交通シミュレーションと土地利用交通モデルを用いて，地方都市にSAVを導入した場合の都市構造の変化と社会的便益を定量的に評価した．また，導入後の運用や対策として，SAVと既存公共交通の乗換およびSAVの運賃体系を考慮したシナリオ分析を行った．その結果，SAVを導入したすべてのシナリオにおいて社会的便益が正となり，SAVの導入に一定の社会的意義が示唆されること，SAVと公共交通の乗換を実施し，短距離においてSAV運賃を低く設定した場合に，居住地の拡散が抑えられ，公共交通事業者の収益が増加し，社会的便益が最も大きくなることを示した。Introducing shared autonomous vehicles (SAV) is considered as a solution to problems of public transportation in Japan regional cities. However, there will be demerits to introducing SAV such as diffusion of residences, decrease in use of public transportation. In this study, using urban traffic simulation and land use and transport interaction model, we aim to clarify the changes in urban structure and the amount of social benefits when SAV are introduced in regional city. The result shows that social benefits are greatest, and diffusion of residences can be controlled in the case where SAV play role in means of not only direct access to destination but also access and egress to public transportation and SAV fare is set at lower rates for short distances