CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Von Frankenhorst, Marius |
|---|---|
| Title | In defence of free riding - Evaluating the impact of Dunkerque's fare free public transport policy on usage |
| Summary | Does the introduction of Fare-Free-Public-Transportation (FFPT) lead to higher usage? The recent uptick of municipalities considering and/or implementing such policies to increase the attractiveness of public transportation (PT) vis-à-vis the ever-dominant car suggests that some think so. However, the potential of FFPT to contribute to these goals remains contested, with a common argument being that pricing constitutes only a second-best lever to influence travel behavior next to measures increasing PT-supply or the cost of car-usage. However, causal studies estimating the impact of FFPT-implementation on PT-usage remain relatively sparse. This study contributes to the discussion by causally estimating the impact of staggered (partial-) FFPT introduction in Dunkerque on the percentage of individuals commuting to work by Bus. It models a synthetic Dunkerque to estimate how the modal commuting split would have developed in absence of FFPT-implementation on Weekends (2015), and general implementation together with the inauguration of an overhauled Bus system (2018). It finds a positive annual treatment effect on the share of commutes conducted by Bus of 0.21% (2015) and 0.54% (2018). The findings suggest that this effect is largely attributable to partial-FFPT implementation in 2015 -and thus falls completely on FFPT. The study finds some evidence that the increase in commuters taking the Bus is explainable by a coinciding decrease of drivers, indicating that FFPT may have induced a substitution-effect. While generally robust to in-space placebos, possible sensitivity of the model(s) to in-time placebos caution against a too confident interpretation of results. |
| Supervisor | Murugesan, Anand; Pareja Alcaraz, Pablo |
| Department | School of Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/frankenhorst_marius.pdf |
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