Transit Ridership Efficiency as a Function of Fares

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assist in the development of transit fare policies that exploit the benefits of public transit in the mix of transportation options for Washington State. The study relates fares to ridership performance.fare-box recovel}; and system utiliranon. Ridership efficiency, a measure of transit performance, is estimated for 24 State transit systems. A mathematical model is developed that relates fares to ridership efficiency. The ridership efficiency function follows the complement of a cumulative normal probability distribution. The tail of the distribution is reached at 50.95. Higher fares hare little impact on ridership efficiency. An operating cost model to estimate the fare-box recorel}' and operating cost subsidy is developed. Ridership.fare-box recov-el}; and system utilization estimates are made for selected transit systems.