Michael Hohmann wrote: It should be no surprise that property values will increase near LRT stations. As some have suggested, the ability for a family to eliminate an automobile from the household budget represents significant annual savings, given the cost of ownership/lease, operation and maintenance, parking, license fees and time lost sitting in commute traffic. People should experience a similar effect locating near major bus routes. As long as transit options are clean, safe and efficient from a time and cost perspective, ridership will increase as will the value of proximity. ************************************* I just wanted to note that major bus routes do not have the same effect of raising adjacent property values to the extent that rail lines do because they do not have the same permanency. People know moving into the Hiawatha Corridor that trains will be operating frequently to fixed points for many decades to come due to the large investment made in the project.
Someone moving to an area along a major bus line does not have the same assurance that bus service will continue to serve the same route, or with the same frequency. The same positive aspect of using buses over rail for public transportation (flexibility to changing routes) is a negative in that is doesn't provide the same type of impetus for development and rising property values. It's similar to the effect that other transportation infrastructure has on development, such as a new highway or freeway. (Developers, businesses, homeowners, etc know that a freeway or a rail line isn't going to be picked up and moved somewhere else.) Bus routes, without accompanying infrastructure investment, do not provide the same value of proximity as rail lines. It is my opinion that a major bus route with a significant capital expenditure for infrastructure such as exclusive bus lanes and comfortable enclosed stations would increase property values in surrounding areas. I believe that the proposed Northwest Bus Corridor could provide a prime example of this principle. Paul Lambie Lowry Hill __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
