Trade-off relationship between public transportation accessibility and household economy: Analysis of subway access values by housing size

This study examines whether different income groups have different trade-off preferences between public transportation accessibility and income and economic power. In this study, apartments, the most typical housing type in Seoul, were categorized according to size (small, medium, and large) based on the premise that apartment size is a measure of the economic status of an individual or household. Subsequently, the effect of subway accessibility on apartment prices for the three types of apartments was examined through the conventional hedonic price model and the spatial autoregressive combined model, followed by an investigation of the spatial patterns of the effect with a focus on a geographically weighted regression. As a result, this study finds that, although subway accessibility serves as a positive factor in housing location decisions for most socioeconomic classes, the positive effect is not spatially unanimous, indicating that households with relatively robust economic stability preferred housing locations further away from subway stations in pursuit of a more attractive residential environment. Although high-income households trade greater accessibility to public transportation for a more attractive neighborhood environment, middle-income households more actively pursued convenience and the greenness of their neighborhoods. Households with less economic stability preferred neighborhoods featuring relatively low-cost housing and greater accessibility. These results confirm the prevalence of trade-off between public transportation accessibility and housing size in Seoul, Korea. This also verifies that the spatial division along economic class lines is intensifying, and that perspectives on subway accessibility vary depending on consumers' economic status. The results suggest the need for consumer-tailored public transportation policies that consider the residential location patterns of the socioeconomic classes that are dependent on public transportation. This perspective can improve our understanding of how to distribute mass transportation systems spaces in large cities, particularly where the wealth gap is relatively high.