Survey of possible approaches to price elasticity in public passanger transport

Abstract

This article summarises price elasticity and cross-elasticity for use in public transit planning, it describes elasticity and how they are used and shortly examines previous researeh on transit elaslicity. Price elasticity can be used to predict the ridership and revenue effects of changes in transit fares, they are used in modelling and predicting how changes in transit services will affect vehicle traffic volumes and pollution emissions and they can help evaluated the impacts and benefits of mobility management strategies such as new transit services, road tolls and parking fees. An important conclusion of this small research is that no single transit elasticity value applies in all situations: various factors affect price elasticity including type of user and trip, geographic conditions and time period. Commonly used transit elasticity values primarily reflects short- and medium-run impacts. The resulting elaslicity values may be appropriate for predicting how a change in transit fares or service will affect next year's ridership and revenue, but long-run elasticity values are more appropriate for strategic planning.