01479186

Component

For decades transportation scholars have argued in favor of differentiated transit fares, which vary by mode, distance, and/or time-of-day. Such fare policies, researchers contend, could greatly increase the efficiency, efficacy, and equity of transit service. However, despite this established research on the benefits of differentiated fares, relatively few transit agencies employ them, and over the past two decades many have actually eliminated differential fares and replaced them with flat fares. Advances in smartcard fare collection technology have reduced the operational obstacles to charging differentiated fares, but with the proliferation of this technology, will transit systems begin implementing differentiated fares? The authors find that changes in fare policies are often crisis-induced and budget-driven, and this ad hoc process reflects the multitude of (and sometimes contradictory) goals that transit agencies pursue – including the political need to provide affordable alternatives to automobiles. This suggests that new smartcard technology may be necessary to overcome operational challenges, but not sufficient to overcome political challenges. The authors also find a significant gap between current practices (of charging flat fares) and beliefs among transit agency officials that more flexible pricing should be implemented. Heard many times over in interviews was deep concern about losing any riders as a result of introducing differentiated fares – despite possible gains in other rider groups or trips made on transit. This fear of losing riders to automobiles, coupled with officials’ reported desires to implement variable fares, suggests that transit agencies should support the adoption of congestion and parking pricing programs, which internalize the costs of driving. Doing so would remove a fundamental barrier to implementing variable transit fares.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP030 Public Transportation Marketing and Fare Policy.

01470560

13-4980

English

16p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Fares; Peak fares; Policy; Public transit; Variable tolls

Differential pricing; Flat fares; Off peak fares

Finance; Policy; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-4980

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:57PM