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Abstract
Bus rapid transit (BRT) has been a promising form of public transportation due to a higher burden of rail transit construction and operation. Many urban economists and planners argue that convenient public transit is one of the core urban strategies to attract and retain creative industries and increase employment density. Although many leaders of cities in the world pay attention to the new type of public transit, we have less understanding of the BRT impact on the location choice of creative industries and job density. Through multilevel modeling, this study tests whether BRT improvement in Seoul, Korea was appealing to the spatial patterns of creative industries and if it changed the spatial variation of employment density. This study confirms that the BRT system is the favorable component for the location of creative industries and service sectors within 500 meters of BRT-bus stops. In addition, the BRT operation increases the employment density within the same distance to the bus stops by 54%. The key findings suggest that enhancing the public transit system would be an effective strategy for higher competitiveness in the urban economy and compact urban structure.
