IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v40y2006i8p671-689.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of "free" public transport: The case of Brussels

Author

Listed:
  • De Witte, Astrid
  • Macharis, Cathy
  • Lannoy, Pierre
  • Polain, Céline
  • Steenberghen, Thérèse
  • Van de Walle, Stefaan

Abstract

Public transport subsidies play an important role in the present Belgian mobility policy. The introduction of "free" bus transport in Hasselt in 1997 was an important event. Later, the Flemish government in cooperation with the regional public transport company elaborated the so-called "third-payer system" for target groups. The price of public transport is not paid by the user or the provider, but partly or completely by a "third party". In how far these measures contribute to a more sustainable mobility system has caused much debate. In the academic year 2003-2004, a "free public transport" initiative was introduced for the students of Flemish colleges and universities in Brussels. These students had the opportunity to obtain a refunded annual season ticket on Brussels public transport. Brussels was selected for the case study, because in the same city there is a group of students that benefits from the measure, and another group (students from French speaking universities and colleges) that does not. In order to examine the effects of this measure, we conducted a survey among the students to examine their present travel behaviour (number of trips, motives, modal choice ...) and the changes with the travel behaviour of the previous year. In addition we compare the current travel behaviour between the students benefiting from the measure, and those who do not.

Suggested Citation

  • De Witte, Astrid & Macharis, Cathy & Lannoy, Pierre & Polain, Céline & Steenberghen, Thérèse & Van de Walle, Stefaan, 2006. "The impact of "free" public transport: The case of Brussels," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 671-689, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:40:y:2006:i:8:p:671-689
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965-8564(05)00175-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Jeffery & Hess, Daniel Baldwin & Shoup, Donald, 2001. "Unlimited Access," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt96t810rj, University of California Transportation Center.
    2. Hine, J. & Scott, J., 2000. "Seamless, accessible travel: users' views of the public transport journey and interchange," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 217-226, July.
    3. Jeffrey Brown & Daniel Hess & Donald Shoup, 2001. "Unlimited Access," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 233-267, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nan Yang & Yong Long Lim, 2018. "Temporary Incentives Change Daily Routines: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Singapore’s Subways," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3365-3379, July.
    2. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Dulal, Hari B., 2008. "Fiscal policy instruments for reducing congestion and atmospheric emissions in the transport sector : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4652, The World Bank.
    3. Redman, Lauren & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Hartig, Terry, 2013. "Quality attributes of public transport that attract car users: A research review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-127.
    4. Drut, Marion, 2018. "Spatial issues revisited: The role of shared transportation modes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 85-95.
    5. De Witte, Astrid & Macharis, Cathy & Mairesse, Olivier, 2008. "How persuasive is 'free' public transport?: A survey among commuters in the Brussels Capital Region," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 216-224, July.
    6. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Hirte, Georg, 2012. "Should subsidies to urban passenger transport be increased? A spatial CGE analysis for a German metropolitan area," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 285-309.
    7. Lee, Ming-Tsung & Yeh, Chao-Fu, 2019. "Causal effects between bus revenue vehicle-kilometers and bus ridership," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 54-64.
    8. Proost, Stef & Dender, Kurt Van, 2008. "Optimal urban transport pricing in the presence of congestion, economies of density and costly public funds," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1220-1230, November.
    9. Diana, Marco & Pronello, Cristina, 2010. "Traveler segmentation strategy with nominal variables through correspondence analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 183-190, May.
    10. Oded Cats & Yusak O. Susilo & Triin Reimal, 2017. "The prospects of fare-free public transport: evidence from Tallinn," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1083-1104, September.
    11. Cools, Mario & Fabbro, Yannick & Bellemans, Tom, 2016. "Free public transport: A socio-cognitive analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 96-107.
    12. Schaefers, Tobias, 2013. "Exploring carsharing usage motives: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 69-77.
    13. Cheng, Yung-Hsiang & Chang, Yu-Hern & Lu, I.J., 2015. "Urban transportation energy and carbon dioxide emission reduction strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 953-973.
    14. De Witte, Astrid & Hollevoet, Joachim & Dobruszkes, Frédéric & Hubert, Michel & Macharis, Cathy, 2013. "Linking modal choice to motility: A comprehensive review," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 329-341.
    15. Ko, Joonho & Lee, Sugie & Byun, Miree, 2019. "Exploring factors associated with commute mode choice: An application of city-level general social survey data," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 36-46.
    16. Taylor, Brian D & Miller, Douglas & Iseki, Hiroyuki & Fink, Camille, 2008. "Nature and/or nurture? Analyzing the determinants of transit ridership across US urbanized areas," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5w9045hh, University of California Transportation Center.
    17. Marion Drut, 2016. "Spatial issues revisited: A note on the role of shared transportation modes," ERSA conference papers ersa16p118, European Regional Science Association.
    18. Chao-Fu Yeh & Ming-Tsung Lee, 2019. "Effects of Taichung bus policy on ridership according to structural change analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-16, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shannon, Tya & Giles-Corti, Billie & Pikora, Terri & Bulsara, Max & Shilton, Trevor & Bull, Fiona, 2006. "Active commuting in a university setting: Assessing commuting habits and potential for modal change," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 240-253, May.
    2. Voss, Achim, 2015. "Collective public-transport tickets and anticipated majority choice: A model of student tickets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 263-276.
    3. Limanond, Thirayoot & Jomnonkwao, Sajjakaj & Watthanaklang, Duangdao & Ratanavaraha, Vatanavongs & Siridhara, Siradol, 2011. "How vehicle ownership affect time utilization on study, leisure, social activities, and academic performance of university students? A case study of engineering freshmen in a rural university in Thail," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 719-726, September.
    4. Bilbao Ubillos, J. & Fernández Sainz, A., 2004. "The influence of quality and price on the demand for urban transport: the case of university students," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 607-614, October.
    5. Taylor, Brian D & Miller, Douglas & Iseki, Hiroyuki & Fink, Camille, 2008. "Nature and/or nurture? Analyzing the determinants of transit ridership across US urbanized areas," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5w9045hh, University of California Transportation Center.
    6. Miralles-Guasch, Carme & Domene, Elena, 2010. "Sustainable transport challenges in a suburban university: The case of the Autonomous University of Barcelona," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 454-463, November.
    7. Aoun, Alisar & Abou-Zeid, Maya & Kaysi, Isam & Myntti, Cynthia, 2013. "Reducing parking demand and traffic congestion at the American University of Beirut," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 52-60.
    8. Balsas, Carlos J. L., 2003. "Sustainable transportation planning on college campuses," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 35-49, January.
    9. Thomas Kolawole OJO & Regina AMOAKO-SAKYI & William AGYEMAN, 2015. "Students’ Satisfaction Of Campus Shuttling Bus Services: A Qualbus Approach," Management Research and Practice, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 7(1), pages 68-79, March.
    10. Delmelle, Eric M. & Delmelle, Elizabeth Cahill, 2012. "Exploring spatio-temporal commuting patterns in a university environment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 1-9.
    11. Lois, David & Monzón, Andrés & Hernández, Sara, 2018. "Analysis of satisfaction factors at urban transport interchanges: Measuring travellers’ attitudes to information, security and waiting," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 49-56.
    12. Dacko, Scott G. & Spalteholz, Carolin, 2014. "Upgrading the city: Enabling intermodal travel behaviour," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 222-235.
    13. Grotenhuis, Jan-Willem & Wiegmans, Bart W. & Rietveld, Piet, 2007. "The desired quality of integrated multimodal travel information in public transport: Customer needs for time and effort savings," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 27-38, January.
    14. de Oña, Juan & Estévez, Esperanza & de Oña, Rocío, 2021. "How does private vehicle users perceive the public transport service quality in large metropolitan areas? A European comparison," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 173-188.
    15. Hickman, Robin & Chen, Chia-Lin & Chow, Andy & Saxena, Sharad, 2015. "Improving interchanges in China: the experiential phenomenon," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 175-186.
    16. Buys, Laurie & Miller, Evonne, 2011. "Conceptualising convenience: Transportation practices and perceptions of inner-urban high density residents in Brisbane, Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 289-297, January.
    17. Nocera, Silvio & Pungillo, Giuseppe & Bruzzone, Francesco, 2021. "How to evaluate and plan the freight-passengers first-last mile," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 56-66.
    18. Ilaria Delponte, 2021. "Institutional and Non-Institutional Governance Initiatives in Urban Transport Planning: The Paradigmatic Case of the Post-Collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    19. Schakenbos, Rik & Paix, Lissy La & Nijenstein, Sandra & Geurs, Karst T., 2016. "Valuation of a transfer in a multimodal public transport trip," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 72-81.
    20. Carlo Vittorio FIORIO & Massimo FLORIO & Giovanni PERUCCA, 2011. "Consumers’ satisfaction and regulation of local public transport: evidence from European cities," Departmental Working Papers 2011-26, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:40:y:2006:i:8:p:671-689. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.