Fare evasion in public transport: Grouping Transantiago users' behavior

Abstract

A survey was conducted in July 2018 on the public bus system in Santiago, Chile, in which 457 users were asked to respond to a list of 42 statements expressing a range of attitudes on dierent aspects of the problem of fare evasion. The respondents were first categorized according to whether they had been observed paying or not paying the fare, and their responses were then subjected to separate cluster analyses that partitioned the respondents into groups according to their views on each survey statement. The analyses identified four distinguishable types or groups among those who did not pay the fare-radical, strategic, ambivalent, and accidental evaders-and three groups among those who did pay-proud, empathetic, and circumstantial evaders. The distinguishing factors motivating the decision to pay or not to pay the fare were found generally to reflect values and attitudes or ideologies but were also influenced by users' perception of the social acceptability of evasion, the presence of anti-evasion measures, and how "organized" they were in taking care to have a farecard with them when planning to take a bus.