Affordability of Public Transport in Developing Countries

The analysis reported here was prompted
by a realization that there was little reliable and
consistent information on what proportion of household
income is spent on urban public transport. The information
available uses inconsistent definitions of what costs are
included and how income is measured, making comparisons
between cities difficult. The authors report here on about a
dozen studies that have addressed the issue of
affordability. Though different measures are used in
different countries, making it difficult to compare the
results between cities, from the studies in South America,
South Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, East Asia
and Australasia summarized here, the authors make clear that
the affordability of urban transport is considered an issue
of importance throughout the developing world. There is also
evidence that the high cost of urban transport is having a
negative impact on the lives of the urban poor - either
through restricting their access to jobs that are within
feasible walking or cycling distance, by consuming an
unsustainable proportion of their income, or by dramatically
curtailing the number of journeys that they make. The
problem is possibly most grave in Africa, the continent for
which there is the least documentation. To address the need
for easily available and comprehensive comparative
information on affordability of public transport fares, the
authors developed an Affordability Index to be used as a
first indication of the affordability of fares in a
particular city. The second half of this report describes
the construction of this Affordability Index and then
describes the results from applying this Index to 27 cities.