Extending the Scope of Highway Planning: Accessibility, Negative Externalities and the Residential Context

Abstract

The objectives of this review-based paper were twofold. Firstly, we aimed to explore the need and possibilities for broadening the scope of highway planning by taking account of the residential context, including residential satisfaction. Satisfaction appears to be an interesting, and in our opinion, valuable mediating planning concept between road infrastructure planning and the accompanying external effects on the one hand and household coping strategies on the other. Households living near highway infrastructure are influenced by both positive (i.e. accessibility gains) and negative road-related factors (e.g. noise nuisance and air pollution). Changes in these factors may trigger people to accept the new situation, adjust preferences, try to influence plans and/or even relocate. The second aim was to gain a greater understanding of the influence of both accessibility characteristics and negative externalities on the residential context of households. With respect to context, we make a distinction between residential satisfaction, housing prices and residential relocation. We see changes in residential satisfaction as a potential early predictor of opposition to plans, not only from active opposers but also from the more 'silent majority', and as a predictor of housing price changes and residential migration. Insights into residential satisfaction around highways may help transportation planners to relieve locational stress and may also prevent protests and relocations. Our literature review indicated that households prefer to live close to highways to benefit from high regional accessibility, but do not want to contend with the nuisances. This is also reflected in property values. However, the literature appears to put more emphasis on studying the impact of (regional) accessibility and externalities on location behaviour than on residential satisfaction. Because of the added value that the concept of residential satisfaction may provide in road planning, and the limited scientific insights, it is important to gain greater insight into how residential satisfaction is influenced by negative and positive externalities and into how residential satisfaction changes over time-from the stage when new road projects are discussed through to concrete planning, realization and the period after completion. Moreover, it would be worthwhile to gain a deeper understanding of the extent to which house prices, location behaviour and residential satisfaction near highways interrelate.

Residential satisfaction close to highways: The impact of accessibility, nuisances and highway adjustment projects

“…Positive and negative externalities may also balance each other out. Additionally the different spatial scales on which accessibility and negative externalities may operate should also be taken into account (Tillema et al, 2012) when analyzing the effect of distance. The effects of noise and air pollution, for instance, are generally limited to an area close to the polluting source (see e.g.…”

“…Theebe, 2004), nuisances can be created by many other sources, such as industry or neighbors. Following Tillema et al (2012) we have distinguished three types of highway externalities: noise, air pollution and barrier-effects. Although we are not aware of residential satisfaction studies that looked at the relation between both aspects in a highway context, there are studies that did include measures of nuisances and (regional) accessibility in other research settings, giving some indications regarding their impact.…”

“…Although there is quite some research being done on either explaining nuisance or accessibility interest and on the impact of road externalities on housing prices, there is hardly any information about how accessibility factors and negative environmental aspects related to roads are traded off in people's overall residential context. Moreover, the opinions currently being heard are mainly the ones of the people attending consultation meetings, often with the intention to oppose plans (Tillema et al, 2012). It is unclear to which extent their view can be considered representative for the view of the 'silent majority'.…”

Residents’ responses to proposed highway projects: Exploring the role of governmental information provision

“…On the one hand, a highway project could bring benefits to residents, for example when it comes with accessibility improvement (Tillema et al, 2012), which may positively influence residential satisfaction. On the other hand, transport infrastructure projects are also often associated with the NIMBY phenomenon, as the costs of such projects are mainly local (e.g.…”

“…We chose enlargement projects because current and future road infrastructure projects in the Netherlands, similar to most developed countries, will mainly consist of extensions and improvements of the existing network (e.g. Tillema et al, 2012). We analysed data obtained by paper questionnaires from 484 respondents living within 1,000m from the proposed projects.…”