Abstract
The evolution of metropolitan transportation networks is an integral component of urban development. Policymakers are eager to prioritize sustainable development as their cities grow and progress. As such, academics have heavily turned their attention to the impact of providing more accessible public transportation, while significantly less academic work focuses on the reduction of public transportation accessibility. Our paper aims to contribute to the research gap surrounding bus stop consolidation. Public transportation efficiency theory posits that some bus stops with limited ridership should be consolidated with higher-demand stops. This paper evaluates the impact of bus stop consolidation on residents in Denver, Colorado by examining the effect of a consolidation project on surrounding residential property values from 2002 to 2022. We use a complete geospatial dataset of property values and bus stop closures during this two-decade span. Our project extends previous research by leveraging variation in the timing of the bus stop consolidations within a stacked spatial difference-in-differences model. Under the parallel trends assumption, we find the following results: (1) Houses that experience an above-median increase, greater than 151 m, in the distance to their nearest bus stop see their housing prices decline by approximately 3.6%. (2) The estimated decline is larger for closures occurring in or after 2017, a difference that is suggestive but not statistically significant. (3) The estimated decline is largest immediately following closure, with smaller point estimates in subsequent years. Although our research design provides evidence consistent with a housing-price response to bus stop closures, contemporaneous neighborhood changes may also contribute to the estimated effect.