TY  - JOUR
A1  - Busch-Geertsema, Annika
A1  - Lanzendorf, Martin
A1  - Klinner, Nora
T1  - Making public transport irresistible? The introduction of a free public transport ticket for state employees and its effects on mode use
T2  - Transport policy
N2  - Highlights
- Cost-free ticket increases public transport use even when the share was high beforehand
- Free tickets are more effective than just a price reduction (zero-price effect)
- Low income, female and older employees benefit the most
- Not only travel behaviour but also attitudes change
- Cost-free public transport is one component in a set of travel demand management tools
Abstract
To increase its attractiveness for employees, to save costs regarding parking supply and to foster modal shift away from the car, employers can offer sharply cost-reduced public transport tickets. In the state of Hesse/Germany, public authorities have gone one step further by introducing a cost-free public transport ticket for all state employees. We argue that the step from sharply cost-reduced to cost-free is more than just a monetary difference. The aim of this study is to assess whether the ticket is actually affecting employees and what changed their travel behaviour. Therefore, we have analysed a two-wave survey conducted at Goethe University in Frankfurt: one from before and one from after the introduction of the new ticket. The results show a substantial increase in the use of public transport (pt) for commuting and other trip purposes. Car use and availability, however, did not decrease. In particular, those who had no cost-reduced jobticket beforehand switched to public transport after the introduction. Furthermore, we identified increasing public transport use for low-income employees (inclusion hypothesis) and several indicators pointing towards a more multimodal behaviour (multimodal hypothesis).
KW  - Jobtickets
KW  - Public transport policy
KW  - Travel demand management
KW  - Free ticket
KW  - Zero-price effect
KW  - Multimodality hypothesis
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/77930
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-779301
SN  - 0967-070X
VL  - 106
SP  - 249
EP  - 261
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam [u.a.]
ER  -