4.6 Article

Is it expensive to be poor? Public transport in Sweden

Journal

TRANSPORTATION
Volume 48, Issue 5, Pages 2709-2734

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11116-020-10145-5

Keywords

Fares; Public transport; Income; Liquidity constraints

Funding

  1. Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) - Lund University

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The study reveals a positive relationship between income and possession of public transport travelcards among low-income earners, indicating that low-income individuals pay more for public transport compared to more affluent individuals. This has important policy implications for improving the accessibility of low-income groups.
One of the reasons to subsidise public transport is to improve the mobility of low-income groups by providing affordable public transport; however, the literature describes a situation whereby those with a low income are unable to afford the cheapest tickets per trip, i.e. travelcards, as they usually require a considerable up-front cost. In this study, we use a large dataset from the Swedish National Travel Survey to investigate whether, and if so how, income explains monthly travelcard possession among individuals for whom this would have been the least expensive option. We find a robust positive relationship between income and travelcard possession among low-income earners, indicating that those with a low income pay more to use public transport than more affluent individuals. As the accessibility of low-income groups is an important motivation for public transport subsidies, the findings from this study have important policy implications.

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