San Jose Transit Equity
Spatial analysis of zoning, parcel capacity, and public transit access around Diridon Station to assess transportation equity in downtown San Jose.
San Jose Transit Equity Analysis
Aug 2025–Feb 2026
The Research Problem
As Diridon Station in downtown San Jose prepares to become one of the most significant transit hubs in California — serving high-speed rail, Caltrain, VTA light rail, and BART — a central question arises: does the zoning and land use around the station enable equitable, transit-oriented development? This project uses spatial analysis to map the relationship between transit access, zoning class, and residential capacity in the area, surfacing inequities in how land is regulated relative to where transit investment is concentrated.
Data & Methods
All spatial data were sourced from the City of San Jose open data portal:
- Parcel shapefiles — parcel-level geometries and land use attributes across the city
- Zoning shapefiles — official zoning district boundaries with classifications
- San Jose municipal zoning code — used to interpret zoning categories and permitted uses
The analysis was conducted in Python using geopandas for spatial joins and shapely for geometry operations. Key steps:
- Defined a study area around Diridon Station using a buffer analysis to capture the transit shed
- Classified zoning into residential, commercial, mixed-use, and industrial categories using the municipal code
- Computed dwelling capacity per parcel based on permitted density by zoning class
- Overlaid public transit routes to assess which parcels have high transit access but restrictive zoning
- Built an interactive map of the Diridon area combining zoning, transit, and parcel layers
Skills & Methods
Python geopandas shapely spatial joins buffer analysis transit-oriented development zoning analysis interactive mapping