She’s got a ticket to ride: gender and public transit passes

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. NOTICE: This is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Transportation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Transportation ; 39 (2012) , pp. 1105-1119 and is online available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11116-011-9381-6 Terms of use: Documents in-1 - ABSTRACTThe promotion of public transit is a central policy tool in the German government's efforts to mitigate pollution, congestion, and other automobile-caused externalities. Drawing on a household survey spanning 1997-2007 from Germany, this analysis investigates the decision to purchase a weekly or monthly transit pass against the backdrop of two questions: 1) Does gender play a role in determining the probability that an individual owns a pass? 2) If so, how is this role mitigated or exacerbated by other socioeconomic attributes of the individual and the household in which they reside? These questions are pursued through a combination of descriptive analyses and econometric methods, the latter of which relies on variants of the probit-and heteroskedastic probit model to control for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity that could otherwise induce biased estimates. The model uncovers several determinants of transit pass patronage over which policy makers have direct leverage, including fares, fuel prices, and the siting of transit stops. Moreover, while women are found to have a higher probability of owning a transit pass than men, the model identifies few variables whose impact differs according to gender, with the two exceptions being the number of children in the household and the distance to work. This absence of differential effects implies that policy measures to increase ridership are likely to have a roughly uniform impact among women and men.

Do fewer people mean fewer cars? Population decline and car ownership in Germany

“…Future work with the data will therefore be directed toward this line of inquiry, and will additionally explore the scope for incorporating the insights gained from other studies with this data that have estimated fuel price elasticities (e.g. Frondel and Vance, 2009) and the proclivity to use public transit (Vance and Peistrup, 2011).…”

Exploring Synergy in Bicycle and Transit Use

“…Studies on the factors influencing transit ridership [e.g., Taylor et al (18)] find a significant negative influence of auto ownership but have yet to consider bicycle ownership. Investigations of the factors influencing transit pass purchasing rarely if ever consider bicycle ownership or use (19,20). Transit and cycling are often only tangentially related; for example, discounted bicyclesharing program memberships are sometimes offered to holders of annual transit passes (15).…”

Do Fewer People Mean Fewer Cars? – Population Decline and Car Ownership in Germany

“…Future work with the data will therefore be directed toward this line of inquiry, and will additionally explore the scope for incorporating the insights gained from other studies with this data that have estimated fuel price elasticities (e.g. Frondel and Vance, 2009) and the proclivity to use public transit (Vance and Peistrup, 2011).…”