01472814

Component

The determinants of public opinion toward public transit is a little-researched topic, though a more thorough understanding of what makes consumers willing support transit may reveal which attributes consumers value most. In this paper, I hypothesize that one determinant of people’s willingness to support mass transit investment is the economic climate surrounding the use of transit’s principal competition—the car. In this case, I examine the cost of gasoline. The author hypothesizes that fuel price volatility, rather than gasoline price itself, will be positively associated with a stated support for more mass transit funding. That is: as the price of gasoline becomes more uncertain, the public should, all else equal, support investment in forms of transportation that provide consumers with some measure of protection from the price of fuel. Results suggest a strong effect of price volatility on consumers’ willingness to support transit expenditures, and no effect of price itself.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE20 Transportation Economics.

01470560

13-4740

English

11p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Capital expenditures; Consumer behavior; Costs; Economic factors; Gasoline; Investments; Prices; Public opinion; Public transit

Energy; Finance; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-4740

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:55PM