Abstract
A detailed study shows changes in travel behavior around new Exposition (Expo) Line light rail stations in Los Angeles. The Expo Line runs 8.7 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The six western-most stations along the Expo Line comprise the experimental neighborhoods, and similar control group neighborhoods were chosen nearby. This research project enrolled experimental households, within œ mile of a new Expo Line station, and control households, living beyond œ mile from the station. In fall of 2011, those households were asked to track their travel for seven days. In approximately half of the households, an adult also carried a GPS device and an accelerometer, to measure travel and physical activity. Evidence shows that the Expo Line is associated with large reductions in VMT, some increase in rail transit ridership, changes in physical activity, and large reductions in GHG emissions among households living within œ mile of a station. The research design, using a control group to account for factors other than the rail investment, allows causal inferences to be made more strongly than is often the case in social scientific research. Viewed from the perspective of the greater Los Angeles region, these impacts will be small, but they are large in the neighborhoods surrounding the Expo Line.