Modal diversion

Public transport improvements are often cited as a strategy to reduce urban traffic congestion by diversion of travelers from the private car, particularly for peak-period commuting. This requires, in part, the rebalancing of the relative modal costs of travel to make transit more attractive.

Initiatives to achieve this change may include both a reduction in transit fares and charges for car commuters to cover their indirect societal costs. The former comes at a high public cost, as noted earlier, whereas the latter can raise public revenues (e.g. through parking and / or direct congestion charges) that may then be used to improve transit.

However significant modal diversion for the better-off will only come when public transit can offer a quality of travel approaching that available to the private-car user. This is only likely to occur where there is a clear differentiation of product in the public transport service offer, and higher fares are authorized to enable recovery of the additional investment and operating costs implicit in the premium quality and performance service.