Does the income level of a neighborhood affect the price elasticity of demand for transit?

Caroline Miller; Ian Savage

Does the income level of a neighborhood affect the price elasticity of demand for transit?

Caroline Miller, Ian Savage

Economics

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

Changes in ridership at individual stations on Chicago's mass-transit rail system following fare increases in 2004, 2006 and 2009 are analyzed to determine whether the price elasticity of demand varies with the per capita income in the neighborhood surrounding each station. For two of the three fare changes, the fare elasticity becomes more inelastic for weekday trips as the neighborhood income per capita increases. However, a contradictory result is found for one of the fare increases. The relationship is even less clear for weekend trips. These mixed finding are in line with the prior literature which also found an inconsistent relationship.

Original language	English (US)
State	Published - 2020
Event	Joint 57th Annual Conference of Canadian Transportation Research Forum and US Transportation Research Forum: North American Transport Challenges in an Era of Change, CTRF-TRF 2016 - Toronto, Canada Duration: May 1 2016 → May 4 2016

Conference

Conference	Joint 57th Annual Conference of Canadian Transportation Research Forum and US Transportation Research Forum: North American Transport Challenges in an Era of Change, CTRF-TRF 2016
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Toronto
Period	5/1/16 → 5/4/16

Keywords

Chicago
Income
Price elasticity
Transit

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science Applications
Management Science and Operations Research
Automotive Engineering
Transportation

Cite this

@conference{8e2b8694a6de41c4a967f063376c9edf,

title = "Does the income level of a neighborhood affect the price elasticity of demand for transit?",

abstract = "Changes in ridership at individual stations on Chicago's mass-transit rail system following fare increases in 2004, 2006 and 2009 are analyzed to determine whether the price elasticity of demand varies with the per capita income in the neighborhood surrounding each station. For two of the three fare changes, the fare elasticity becomes more inelastic for weekday trips as the neighborhood income per capita increases. However, a contradictory result is found for one of the fare increases. The relationship is even less clear for weekend trips. These mixed finding are in line with the prior literature which also found an inconsistent relationship.",

keywords = "Chicago, Income, Price elasticity, Transit",

author = "Caroline Miller and Ian Savage",

note = "Funding Information: This work was conducted while a student at Northwestern University Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Joint Annual Conference of Canadian Transportation Research Forum and US Transportation Research Forum: North American Transport Challenges in an Era of Change, CTRF-TRF 2016. All rights reserved.; Joint 57th Annual Conference of Canadian Transportation Research Forum and US Transportation Research Forum: North American Transport Challenges in an Era of Change, CTRF-TRF 2016 ; Conference date: 01-05-2016 Through 04-05-2016",

year = "2020",

language = "English (US)",

}

Does the income level of a neighborhood affect the price elasticity of demand for transit? / Miller, Caroline; Savage, Ian.
2020. Paper presented at Joint 57th Annual Conference of Canadian Transportation Research Forum and US Transportation Research Forum: North American Transport Challenges in an Era of Change, CTRF-TRF 2016, Toronto, Canada.