BACKGROUND

Effective fare payment policies and practices are essential to the efficient operation of public transportation services. Transit agencies in the United States and internationally have implemented fare capping since the early 2000s as account-based fare payment technologies and systems became available. Account-based technologies offer numerous benefits, including faster boarding, reduced cash handling, and the ability to provide fare product options, such as fare capping. Currently, limited information is known about the effects of fare capping on transit ridership and revenue.  

Research conducted on fare capping during the past decade has raised questions such as:

• Does fare capping impact transit use? If so, which rider segments change their transit travel patterns and how? Do riders perceive increased marginal costs of individual trips, potentially leading to fewer trips? To what extent does this travel behavior differ by market segment? To what extent does a customer’s understanding of fare capping influence their use of fare capping products?
• Does fare capping have positive or negative financial impacts for transit agencies? How do factors such as transit agency size and operational characteristics influence these outcomes?
• How should fare capping programs be structured at transit agencies with different attributes? How do the effects of fare capping vary based on tariff and fare policy?
• What are appropriate metrics and measures of effectiveness for fare capping? 

Research is needed to provide answers to these and other questions. 

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this research are to (1) examine the ridership and revenue effects of fare capping for public transit agencies in North America, and (2) provide sketch planning tools that estimate the potential ridership and revenue impacts of fare capping for transit agencies with varying attributes. This research should build on the available research on fare capping and the experiences of domestic and international transit agencies with fare capping programs. 

RESEARCH PLAN

The research plan will describe appropriate deliverables that include the following (which also represent key project milestones):  

• An amplified research plan that responds to comments provided by the project panel at the subawardee selection meeting.
• An interim report and panel meeting. The interim report should include the analyses and results of completed tasks, a plan for the remaining tasks, and a detailed outline of the final research product(s). The panel meeting will be virtual (e.g., Zoom) and will take place after the panel review of the interim report. The interim report should be submitted and panel meeting should occur after the expenditure of about 40 to 50 percent of the project budget.
• Final deliverables. The final deliverables should fully address this research project’s objectives.
• A technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”.
• A slide deck that presents the research findings and conclusions that may be used in webinars. 

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP. The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.