Prof. David Levinson
Foundation Professor in Transport Engineering
University of Sydney
Prof. David Levinson joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2017 as Foundation Professor in Transport Engineering. He was a Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota, from 1999 to 2016. He conducts research on Accessibility, Transport Economics, Transport Network Evolution, and Transport and Land Use Interaction. He is the Founding Editor of Findings and the Journal of Transport and Land Use. He is the author of several books including: The Transportation Experience, Planning for Place and Plexus, Elements of Access, and The End of Traffic and the Future of Access. He blogs at https://www.transportist.net
Access for Evaluation and Using Land Value Appreciation to Fund Investment
Current methods of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for transport investments rely on travel-time savings for potential users. This approach presents a consistent and significant historical trend of forecast inaccuracy, and thus has been questioned and criticised. Access, or the ease of reaching valued destinations, can be used as an alternative. Access features a strong correlation with land value which can be measured through hedonic analysis, and subsequently, access gains offered by a transport initiative can be monetised via property uplift. We test this hypothesis and evaluate Sydney’s South West Metro Link (SWML). This approach has implications for transport investment financing and value capture.