The equity and spatial implications of transit fare

Abstract

Availability of new open/big data (NOBD) such as smartcard and General Transit Feed Specification data has provided unprecedented opportunities for transit planners and policy-analysts to conduct analyses that are highly challenging and even infeasible where only traditional data (e.g., censuses/surveys) are in presence. In this study, we first review and summarize discrete and scattering existing studies on (a) society and justice, (b) transportation/space and justice, and (c) transit fare and justice. We consider (c) as a subset of (b) and (b) as a subset of (a). We then illustrate how NOBD can supplement traditional data in the studies of the equity and spatial implications of transit fares via an exploratory study of Brisbane, Australia. Specifically, we propose and implement methods or procedures such as “trajectory rebuilding”, “fare matching”, “segment tagging”, “desired line/stop visualisation”, “commuter identification” and “scenario analysis” to show why and how transit fares could have important equity and spatial implications. In addition to empirical findings and policy recommendations, we offer some transferable methods and procedures for visualising and concretizing the aforementioned implications.