The Across Latitudes and Cultures BRT Centre of Excellence invites to its webinar series to share timely public transit research and encourage ongoing collaboration. Our January webinar will be:
“Understanding fare evasion in urban bus systems: Evidence from Santiago, Chile”
Presented by Pablo Guarda, on Thursday January 28th, 10:00am (EST USA, GMT -05:00). Pablo Guarda is a research associate at the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), Chile, and won the Michael Beesley Award at Thredbo 14.
See summary, presentation and video below.
Summary:
Fare evasion is a problem in many public transport systems around the world. A survey from the International Association of Public Transport (IAPT) found that fare evasion averaged 4.2% across their sample of (primarily) bus routes in 31 systems and 18 countries. Policies to reduce fare evasion are generally aimed at improving control systems and increasing fines for offenders. Likewise, many studies have focused on the design of punishment strategies to tackle fare evasion. However, this, rather simplistic, view does not consider the different social and contextual aspects in which fare evasion takes place.
The main objective of this presentation is to show that fare evasion levels are the product of a combination of several factors, including the level of income of the area where bus stops are located, period of the day, level of service (headways and overcrowding), bus door operation (entrance door and number of doors), the level of inspection, among others. To analyze and quantify the impact of each variable this study used an econometric approach. Our findings provides a powerful tool to predict the impact of some public policies to deal with evasion and also having a better understanding of this complex issue.
References: Guarda, P., Galilea, P., Paget-Seekins, L. and Ortúzar, J. de D., 2015. What is behind fare evasion in urban bus systems? An econometric approach. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2015.10.008
Presentation:
Video:
