PROFILE OF MONTHLY PASS USERS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

As part of a Service and Methods Demonstration project on transit fare prepayment a survey was conducted of monthly pass users on the San Francisco Municipal Railway and the Alameda-Contra Costa County Transit District in October 1980. The survey was intended to fulfill three information needs: (a) provide baseline data on pass users and their travel patterns, (b) assist transit marketing efforts by providing information about sales and distribution of passes, and (c) help to gauge the market for proposed intersystem transit passes in the San Francisco Bay Area. The survey instrument design was innovative, embodying a number of incentives designed to boost the response rate on the self-completion survey. The use of these incentives as well as the design of the trip-making questions on the survey are of potential interest to travel behavior researchers. The survey results focus on a number of issues: a profile of the transit pass user, pricing implications derived from trip patterns of pass users, the market of intersystem passes, and consumer preferences for marketing and distribution of fare prepayment modes. The survey found that the market can really be subdivided into the long-haul, higher-income, commute-only user and the local, lower-income, transit-dependent user. Different methods of distribution, pricing, and promotion must be directed at these distinct submarkets. The survey also found that a significant number of current pass users now buy passes for more than one system and would be interested in buying a joint pass. The first joint pass to be developed was one that met these needs--a simple combination of two existing passes.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1982/877/877-009.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=PROFILE+OF+MONTHLY+PASS+USERS+IN+THE+SAN+FRANCISCO+BAY+AREA&author=H.+DITTMAR&publication_year=1982
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309034655
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Public Transportation Planning and Development. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • DITTMAR, HENRY
• Publication Date: 1982

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 45-51
• Monograph Title: Urban public transportation planning issues
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 877
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fare collection; Interchanges; Pricing; Promotion; Transfers
• Geographic Terms: San Francisco (California)
• Old TRIS Terms: Integrated fares; Passes
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00372415
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309034655
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 29 1983 12:00AM