Affordability of public transport for the poorest group indicator

Information needed

Possible specific sources

Costs*

Advice to fill data gaps and/ or improve data quality

Monthly PT price

The price of the monthly PT pass should come from the PT authority of the urban area, or the operating company. In case of multiple operating companies covering the urban area, wherever possible the price sought should be referring to unlimited travel on all operators’ services in the entire urban area.

L

• In case a ticket that covers all public transport modes is available on a weekly basis only, then the weekly price could be multiplied by 52 and then divided by 12 in order to calculate the monthly price.

Household size

If there is no integrated pass allowing travel on the services of all operators, then the price of the monthly pass should be calculated by adding the prices for each operating company.

L

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Monthly income 25% poorest

The costs are usually known (e.g. online).

M/H

Monthly expenditures transport services by poorest 25%

M/H

• The collection of information from specific surveys (both already existing and specifically designed) is the essential way to fill in the required parameters.
• A survey on household income and expenditure is conducted at least every 2 years in each EU country, under the auspices of the EU SILC (Standard of Income and Living Conditions). Eurostat shows results, including the distribution of income by quantiles and the net income by degree of urbanisation, at EU country level, but national/ regional statistical offices could have data at local level.
• When data is available only by deciles, this information should be used to estimate the income for the poorest quartile using a weighted average.
• The use of data of a higher administrative level (e.g. region) as a proxy could be also used. By doing so, it is best to try to approximate the income for the urban area as closely as possible. Please note that using national deciles as calculated at national or regional level would underestimate the income in the bigger cities. As regional data generally includes both urban and rural areas, such figures could be adjusted the calculated ratio between urban areas and the average.
• Please also note that statistics are sometimes referred to single persons (i.e. taxpayers); in this case the coefficient for the average household size should be set to 1 in order to fill in the correct parameter(s). The goal is to use the same unit of analysis when calculating affordability: this indeed means having either all the three elements required (PT price, income, expenditures on transport) expressed per person or per household, never a combination.
• If data from household income/ expenditure surveys is used, the data should be max. 5 years old, and the income needs to be adjusted by the inflation rate to reach the figure for the desired year.