Transit
Self-Funding
% of New Transit Capital Funded through Value Capture Mechanisms
(Work in Progress)
Land Value Uplift Captured by Public Entities Near Transit Investments
(Work in Progress)
Key Points
• Self-Funding means capturing the land value that transit investment creates and reinvesting it into the system that created it.
• New transit lines raise nearby land values; value capture mechanisms and Transit Oriented Development are how the public recoups some of that uplift.
• A transit system funded this way depends less on general revenue and political winds each legislative session.
• Goal: a growing share of new transit capital funded through value capture, with land value uplift increasingly captured by public entities rather than flowing entirely to private landowners.
What is it?
Self-Funding means transit investment pays for a meaningful share of its own cost by capturing the land value it creates, rather than relying entirely on general tax revenue or fare collection. When a new transit line or station goes in, land near it becomes more valuable. This plank is about public entities capturing some of that uplift through value capture mechanisms and transit-oriented development, and reinvesting it into the system that created the value in the first place.
Why Self-Funded Matters
Transit expansion is expensive, and funding constraints are one of the main reasons service does not grow fast enough to keep pace with housing built around it. Value capture offers a way to fund transit growth using the value transit itself generates, rather than competing with other public priorities for general revenue every budget cycle. This connects directly to housing, since transit-oriented development built near stations is often the same housing this platform is trying to encourage, and a higher volume of well-located TOD strengthens the case for, and the funding behind, further transit investment. A transit system that captures its own value creation is also a stronger long term partner for housing policy, since it depends less on political winds in any given legislative session.
Where We Want to Be
The goal is for value capture mechanisms to fund a meaningfully growing share of new transit capital projects, reducing reliance on general revenue and fare-dependent funding models. That requires a growing pipeline of active TOD projects clustered near transit stations, since those projects are both a source of value to capture and the kind of housing this platform wants to see built in the first place. Land value uplift near transit investments should be tracked and increasingly captured by public entities rather than flowing entirely to private landowners who benefit from public investment they did not pay for. The vision is a transit system that grows itself, where new investment creates value that funds the next round of investment, rather than a system perpetually underfunded relative to the growth happening around it.