Impact analysis of reduced fare programme for older people on step counts per day and travel behaviour

Abstract

This study verifies the impact of the reduced fare programme for senior citizens on the step count per day, visited places and the modal share of public transportation. We targeted citizens over 65 years in Toyama City, japan. The city operates a Special Pass Project, which allows passholders to receive a public transportation discount fare to the city centre from any station or stop in the city. We selected participants randomly and collected global positioning system log data and step counts for one month. Participants were instructed to wear the provided instruments, which we configured in advance. We analysed and compared the results between passholders and non-passholders. Passholders walked more than non-passholders. In addition, passholders visited more places in the city centre. Moreover, the modal share of public transportation between the city centre and home was higher for passholders than for non-passholders. These results confirm that the reduced fare programme supports active lifestyles for senior citizens.

Effect of Group Contingency Type on Walking: Comparisons of Effectiveness and Cost Efficiency

“…The following three measures were taken to minimize step count differences among participants assigned to the same team. First, in accordance with the criteria suggested in previous research (Kamada et al, 2018;Tomata et al, 2019), all participants were divided into the following four categories based on their average daily step count: below 2,000; 2,000-3,999; 4,000-5,999; and 6,000-7,999 steps. Second, participants in the same category were randomly grouped to form teams with three members each.…”

Effect of Low-Cost Policy Measures to Promote Public Transport Use: A Case Study of Oyama City, Japan

“…Examples of policy measures to change the transport environment include public transport developments such as light rail transit (LRT) [2], road pricing [3], and fare reductions for public transport [4][5][6][7][8]. Several studies have shown the effects of fare reduction and free public transport, not only in terms of increasing the number of public transport users [4,5] and encouraging the shift from private cars to public transport [6], but also in terms of increasing the amount of walking [7] and the frequency of visits to the city centre [7].…”