Winners or losers

Existing research rarely goes beyond individual dimensions of neighborhood change to explore the broader neighborhood impacts of transit investments as perceived by neighborhood residents. To fill gaps in this knowledge, the residents of selected neighborhoods along four transit corridors in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota were surveyed. Survey results show that residents of the study neighborhoods had generally positive perceptions of transit-induced neighborhood change. However, significant differences existed between urban and suburban areas and between individual neighborhoods. In addition, African-Americans, immigrants, frequent transit users, carless residents, and new residents in general had more positive perceptions of transit-induced neighborhood change than did whites, nonimmigrants, infrequent or nontransit users, residents with access to a motor vehicle, and longtime residents. Asian urbanites had more negative perceptions. Implications of these findings are discussed.