People are willing to pay more than fares for transit

This is really nothing new, except that it is a new data about an old truth:

from the Econsult report
from the Econsult report

Analysis of Philadelphia suburban data shows that people are willing to pay more than fares for rail transit, as indicated by house prices in areas near the stations. These are really land prices since characteristics of the houses are already filtered out. Interesting to see that people living more than a half-mile from the station seem willing to pay more for frequent service than for extensive parking, but I wouldn’t want to conclude too much from this limited analysis.  The study considers only parking and frequency of service, nothing about travel time, availability of feeder bus, or anything else, but the main point remains.  See the full report here.

Philadelphia needs land tax, too

Henry George Foundation’s Josh Vincent had a nice op-ed in Thursday’s Philadelphia Bulletin, noting that there is a good case for cutting taxes on work and investment, and a good case for increasing the budget to pay for needed services.  His point is that this doesn’t have to be an either/or choice.  By taxing land adequately, taxes can be cut and service maintained or improved. No great revelation to Georgists, but it’s good to see it in a major newspaper.