Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Allocating subsidies to public transport: some theoretical and practical considerations
Economic developments, particularly in recent years, have led to a revived interest in the efficacy of government expenditures. One area of government interest where discussions are particularly lively is public transport. Public transport is a service to the public of a country or region which seldom seems able to pay its own costs. Politicians argue that the purpose of public transport is not to make money but to contribute with improved accessibility to the social well‐being of society. In the following pages we will try to make operational the concept of social well‐being so as to help find practical solutions for the subsidization of public transport. One such solution is the optimum allocation of funds to public transport in urban areas.
The concept of social well‐being has two unpleasant features, namely, that it is complex and that it is vague. They are probably to blame for the fact that discussions of social well‐being are either so general that no meaningful conclusion can be drawn from them, or that they do not go beyond giving highly specific, often almost trivial examples of (the lack of) social well‐being, leaving entirely open the question how such examples fit in a general concept of social well‐being.
Without pretending to an operational definition of social well‐being, we will at least try to substitute a notion that can be meaningfully operated in certain cases. We shall see, however, that the substitution cannot be carried through without the loss of a feature essential to social well‐being.
After the more or less philosophical introduction to the problem a general model for public transport will be presented in which both the level of service and the fare are introduced as instruments to increase the contribution of public transport to social well‐being. It will be shown that, although in principle the marginal benefit‐cost approach has to be considered as the best approach to problems of public transport, financial constraints could become so severe that a monopolistic approach is used instead.
After this theoretical part of the paper it is shown how the model could be estimated and prepared for use in a system of optimum allocation of funds for public transport.
Allocating subsidies to public transport: some theoretical and practical considerations
Economic developments, particularly in recent years, have led to a revived interest in the efficacy of government expenditures. One area of government interest where discussions are particularly lively is public transport. Public transport is a service to the public of a country or region which seldom seems able to pay its own costs. Politicians argue that the purpose of public transport is not to make money but to contribute with improved accessibility to the social well‐being of society. In the following pages we will try to make operational the concept of social well‐being so as to help find practical solutions for the subsidization of public transport. One such solution is the optimum allocation of funds to public transport in urban areas.
The concept of social well‐being has two unpleasant features, namely, that it is complex and that it is vague. They are probably to blame for the fact that discussions of social well‐being are either so general that no meaningful conclusion can be drawn from them, or that they do not go beyond giving highly specific, often almost trivial examples of (the lack of) social well‐being, leaving entirely open the question how such examples fit in a general concept of social well‐being.
Without pretending to an operational definition of social well‐being, we will at least try to substitute a notion that can be meaningfully operated in certain cases. We shall see, however, that the substitution cannot be carried through without the loss of a feature essential to social well‐being.
After the more or less philosophical introduction to the problem a general model for public transport will be presented in which both the level of service and the fare are introduced as instruments to increase the contribution of public transport to social well‐being. It will be shown that, although in principle the marginal benefit‐cost approach has to be considered as the best approach to problems of public transport, financial constraints could become so severe that a monopolistic approach is used instead.
After this theoretical part of the paper it is shown how the model could be estimated and prepared for use in a system of optimum allocation of funds for public transport.
Allocating subsidies to public transport: some theoretical and practical considerations
Klaassen, Leo H. (Autor:in) / Vogelaar, Hans (Autor:in) / Wagenaar, Sjoerd (Autor:in)
Transport Reviews ; 4 ; 43-72
01.01.1984
30 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Unbekannt
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