THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORT ON RESIDENTIAL LOCATION - FINAL REPORT (TN6)

Two stated preference experiments were carried out in the Greater Oxford area, each with around 100 respondents. The aim of these experiments was to determine the key transport and location factors that householders take into account when determining their residential location. The surveys suggest that householders place a high value on journey times and costs but also value low density developments, access to high quality schools, low noise levels and developments in small towns/rural areas. A hedonistic pricing (HP) model indicated much lower impacts of travel time to work, housing density and school quality on house prices than the stated preference data. The HP model also indicated a high value of time and of some implausibly signed parameter values (such as noise). Validation tests indicated that the HP model provided more reliable forecasts of house prices than the SP model. The unweighted HP model suggested that road user charging might reduce house prices on average by around 2% (more outside the charged area but increased inside the charged area). A 10% increase in fuel duty gave an average house price reduction of 3.4%. Introducing a new but more expensive public transport system from Abingdon to Oxford (guided busway) might increase house prices by around 3% on average. It is suggested that the policy of building the majority of new houses outside Oxford city may have more impact on transport than transport policy has on transport.