Exploring the effects of public transport subsidies on satisfaction and ridership

Abstract

The determinants of public transport demand are multifaceted, necessitating consideration of various factors that extend beyond the objective aspects of operation. In addition to travel time and costs, it is imperative to comprehend psychosocial factors influencing public transport usage to enhance policies geared toward fostering ridership and sustainable mobility. Empirical evidence suggests that subjective attributes, such as satisfaction and attitudes, exert a discernible influence on travel behavior and the utilization of public transport. Nevertheless, these linkages remain largely unexplored, especially within the context of large public transport networks in cities of the Global South. This paper aims to address this gap by evaluating the impact of demand-side subsidies in the form of travel vouchers on public transport ridership to understand the mediating effect of satisfaction levels according to the users’ socioeconomic characteristics. These satisfaction levels are related to overall satisfaction with transport, employment and educational opportunities, and life. To achieve this, a large-scale randomized controlled experiment was conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, involving a sample of frequent public transport users (N = 1,607). The participants were divided into a treatment group, which received the travel vouchers loaded onto their smart travel cards for four months, and a control group. Hybrid-ordered logit models were employed to estimate the average number of weekly trips undertaken before, during, and after the intervention. The result shows an increase in ridership by the treatment group, which does not solely depend on improved affordability; but is influenced by a complex interplay of socioeconomic factors and shifts in satisfaction levels. This confirmed that travel satisfaction can contribute to increased public transport demand.