Does California High-Speed Rail Promote Accessibility for Station Cities?: Case Study of Fresno and Merced [Research Brief]
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2024-05-01
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Abstract:High-speed rail (HSR) provides more frequent service, lower cost, easier station access, greater reliability, and increased safety, and therefore has been regarded as a more effective transportation mode as compared to aviation for distances of up to 425 miles/700 km. California is currently building a high-speed rail system (CHSR), which will run from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 3 hours and will extend to Sacramento and San Diego, totally 800 miles with 24 stations. A city with a HSR station is likely to have higher growth rates of population, employment, and land use. HSR would also increase mobility and accessibility and, therefore, would change the physical landscape and economies around station cities. A station city will not only confront the challenge of increases in demand, but also have to reassess accessibility to urban opportunities for a new daily living sphere. There are no previous empirical studies to date on effects of the CHSR on accessibility to jobs and amenities for valley cities and, therefore, is needed. To fill this research gap, this study examines how the CHSR would affect the accessibility to jobs, schools, and parks by driving, transit, and walking for Fresno and Merced. A new analytic framework is proposed to examine the effect of the CHSR on accessibility and to compare that accessibility between the two station cities using four perspectives: opportunity costs, conditions for equal accessibility, statistical analysis, and contour mapping. This brief covers the results for the case of Fresno; full results are available in the report.
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