THE EFFECT OF FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT ON THE JOURNEY TO WORK

Abstract

The travel habits of public transport employees who had free travel concessions on public transport were compared with those of similar groups of workers who had to pay fares in seven provincial cities. The study used linear logit models to examine the effect of the many different travel and socio-economic factors on mode choice between car and public transport for the journey to work, on car availability for the journey to work, and on single and multiple car ownership. The results suggested that socio-economic variables were very important in explaining car ownership and availability, but less so in influencing mode choice, while the difficulty and cost of the public transport journey appeared to have an important effect on mode choice and car availability, and less so on car ownership. The best estimate of the effect of providing free public transport for the control group is that car use by peak-hour commuters who do not need their car at work would be reduced by 22 per cent, that 10 per cent of those workers who had a car available for the work journey would no longer have the choice and would travel by public transport if it were free, and that car ownership among commuting households would be reduced by a statistically non-significant 3 per cent. Much additional information on the factors influencing travel behaviour was also obtained, including estimates for the value of travel time of 50p per hour for time spent walking or in a public transport vehicle, 13p per hour for time spent driving to work, and 200p per hour for time spent waiting for public transport, though this latter figure is known to be an over-estimate. /Author/

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