DIFFERENTIAL TIME-OF-DAY TRANSIT-FARE POLICIES: REVENUE, RIDERSHIP, AND EQUITY

This paper examines the financial, ridership, and equity implications of premium rush-hour fares of seven transit systems in New York State. Using 1973 data and demand equations that establish a relation between fare and ridership calculations are made to estimate changes in ridership and revenue in each of the cities for various peak and off-peak fare combinations. Graphs are plotted for each of the cities to determine the fare combinations that maximize ridership without decreasing revenue more than 5 percent and still improve equity. The results showed that, in all of the cities studied, no differential fare combination increases both revenue and ridership simultaneously. Certain combinations improve equity while increasing either ridership or revenue with a less than 5 percent loss in the other. In Albany-Schenectady-Troy, Rochester, Syracuse, and Binghamton, combinations that increase passengers at the expense of a less than 5 percent decrease in revenue are attractive because of their flexibility. In New York City and Buffalo, combinations that increase revenue rather than passengers are attractive because no fare combination would increase passengers more than 5 percent without a loss of 15 percent or more in revenue. /Author/