[sustran] tariff affordability study

[Todd Litman]

You may want to download our report "Evaluating Transportation Equity"
available at http://www.islandnet.com/~litman, which discusses this issue.

Some equity advocates argue that society should strive to insure that
"basic mobility" is affordable. Of course, this requires defining both
"basic mobility" and "affordability". Generally, this means that people
should be able to access essential services (medical care, food and other
household goods), employment and education without spending an excessive
portion of their income or time budget, or bearing excessive risk. This
justifies, for example, subsidies for public transit, discounted fares for
disadvantaged groups, and priority services for disabled travelers.

Road tolls, parking fees and increased fuel taxes are often criticized as
being regressive and inequitable, but this actually depends on how the
revenues are used. It is easy to structure price increases to benefit
lower-income/disadvantaged populations populations. For example, higher
fees on private automoible travel can be used to increase subsidies for
walking, bicycling and transit modes, providing a net benefit to the poor,
and helping to reduce traffic congestion and accident risk to motorists.
Incrased fuel taxes and tolls can be used to reduce other, more regressive
taxes.

Land use policies also have a lot to do with transportation equity. In
particular, if lower-income people do not have affordable housing toward
urban centers, they bear higher transportation costs. For example,
lower-income neighborhoods in most South American cities are at the urban
periphery, where commuting costs are high. Finding ways to provide more
affordable housing closer to employment centers can be an important part of
reducing the financial burden of transportation to lower-income households.
Similarly, improving services, such as schools and medical services to
lower-income areas can reduce the travel burden.

Sincerely,

Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail:  litman at islandnet.com
Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman


At 12:31 PM 5/19/99 +0700, you wrote:
>From: "Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis" <halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id>
>
>As mood in public utility management tends to go  for privatisation, tariff
>setting and its adjustment is one of a crucial issue. In Britain, the mood
>was started during the Tory (conservative) , as  they called it Thatcherism
>at that time. Regarding transport related tariff, toll, road pricing, public
>tranport, crossing, etc. I have never heard of the issue of tariff
>affordability was discussed during that period.
>
>Quite differently in Indonesia, as the wave of privatisation  is now started
>to be adopted as a model  for the future  public utility management, issue
>of tariff affordability become very relevant, as at least 50% of the sociey
>are under the poverty line, as the result of the recent economic crisis.
>Also the issue of public service obligation, to dictate how much should the
>private provide service for the poor with low tariff, apart from the
>commercial services.
>
>I found quite many similar studies focused on sectors such as housing,
>health, defence, BUT  not in  transport.
>
>Anybody could pin point me of previous  tariff affordability (or ability to
>pay) studies in the transport market ?
>
>
>Kindly regards,
>
>Harun al-Rasyid S. Lubis             http://trans.si.itb.ac.id
>Traffic Lab, Transport Engineering Division
>Dept. of Civil Engineering - ITB
>Jl. Ganeca 10 Bandung 40132 - Indonesia
>Tel/Facs. +62 22  250 23 50  halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id
>
>
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