FARE POLICY AND STRUCTURE

The overall objective of this research effort is to relate fare policies and fare structures to passenger demand characteristics as well as to operating expenses and to determine appropriate methods of addressing fare in transit financing. This report presents the findings of a three year research effort. It includes a survey of literature on fare policies and structures throughout the nation. In addition, the report presents the findings of a nation-wide survey of transit properties and deals with fares, ridership, financing, and policy making. Analysis of acquired information show that fare revenues are producing an ever decreasing percentage of operating expenses and, by 1980 will account for less than 40 percent of operating expenses for transit properties nation-wide. The report puts forth arguments for the study of time-varied fares as the most beneficial policy for reducing the financial problems of transit properties while still increasing ridership and also shows that using fare policy/structures to reduce peak vehicles can result in operating cost savings.