Public Transport Pricing Policy – Empirical Evidence from a Fare-Free Scheme in Tallinn, Estonia

摘要

Cities worldwide are looking for new policies to attract travellers to shift from car to public transport. Policies focused on reducing public transport fares are aimed to improve social inclusion and lead to a modal shift. The City of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has recently introduced a fare-free public transport (FFPT) in an effort to improve accessibility and mobility for its residents. The case of Tallinn is a full-scale real-world experiment which provides a unique opportunity to investigate the impacts of FFPT policy. This paper presents a macro-level empirical evaluation of FFPT impacts on service performance, passenger demand and accessibility for various travellers’ groups. In contrast to previous studies, the influence of FFPT on passenger demand was estimated while controlling for changes in supply. The results indicate that the FFPT measure accounts for an increase of 1.2% in passenger demand with the remaining increase attributed to extended network of public transport priority lanes and increased service frequency. The relatively small effect could be attributed to the previous price level and public transport share as well as the analysis of the short-term impact. The evidence-based policy evaluation is instrumental in supporting policy making and facilitating the design of public transport pricing strategies.