Making public transport irresistible? The introduction of a free public transport ticket for state employees and its effects on mode use

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2021

Subject Area

place - europe, ridership - attitudes, ridership - behaviour, ridership - commuting, ridership - mode choice, planning - surveys, planning - travel demand management

Keywords

Jobtickets, Public transport policy, Travel demand management, Free ticket, Zero-price effect, Multimodality hypothesis

Abstract

To increase its attractiveness for employees, to save costs regarding parking supply and to foster modal shift away from the car, employers can offer sharply cost-reduced public transport tickets. In the state of Hesse/Germany, public authorities have gone one step further by introducing a cost-free public transport ticket for all state employees. We argue that the step from sharply cost-reduced to cost-free is more than just a monetary difference. The aim of this study is to assess whether the ticket is actually affecting employees and what changed their travel behaviour. Therefore, we have analysed a two-wave survey conducted at Goethe University in Frankfurt: one from before and one from after the introduction of the new ticket. The results show a substantial increase in the use of public transport (pt) for commuting and other trip purposes. Car use and availability, however, did not decrease. In particular, those who had no cost-reduced jobticket beforehand switched to public transport after the introduction. Furthermore, we identified increasing public transport use for low-income employees (inclusion hypothesis) and several indicators pointing towards a more multimodal behaviour (multimodal hypothesis).

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0967070X

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