lable at ScienceDirect

Research in Transportation Economics 22 (2008) 12–15

Contents lists avai

Research in Transportation Economics

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/retrec

Growing patronage: Challenges and what has been found to work

Rosario Macario a,*, Sergio Jara-Diaz b

a CESUR – Instituto Superior Tecnico; and TIS.pt, consultores em Transportes, Inovaçao e Sistemas, s.a. Lisboa, Portugalb Facultad de Ciencias Fısicas y Matematicas Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Keywords:DemandPatronage

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 218 418 417; faxE-mail addresses: rosariomacario@civil.ist.ut

(R. Macario).

0739-8859/$ – see front matter � 2008 Elsevier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2008.05.004

a b s t r a c t

The workshop ‘‘Growing patronage: Challenges and what has been found to work’’ included pre-sentations of 10 papers from all continents, addressing issues including service design, transferability,planning, strategy and decision making. Discussion focused on four topics: conflict or compromise be-tween commercial and social objectives when designing services; the effects of growing demand for caruse; which are the most effective instruments to increase patronage recognising that cultural and socialdifferences can also be important contextual biases; and whether the sector is striving for real perfor-mance or merely towards contractual compliance, and what has to be done to counteract this trend.

� 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The workshop titled ‘‘Growing patronage: Challenges and whathas been found to work’’ was based on 10 papers, providing evi-dence from different parts of the world covering all continents. Theworkshop discussions covered many different viewpoints withparticipation from transit operators, local authorities, consultants,academics and researchers.

The papers, briefly presented in the next section, addressedseveral issues, including service design, transferability, planning,strategy and decision making. The six discussion sessions coveredthe following issues:

� Are commercial and social objectives in conflict, if so, how doesthis dispute affect design variables?� What are the effects on public transport of a trend towards

growing car use?� What is more effective: the carrot or the stick?� Can cultural and social differences be used as learning

benchmarks?� Is the current regulatory and contractual framework stimu-

lating real performance enhancement or simply a growingobsession with contractual compliance?� Should monitoring of performance remain focused on planning

and operation outcomes, or is it time to also address the moreblurred domain of the quality and impact of decision making?

: +351 218 418 417.l.pt, jaradiaz@ing.uchile.cl

All rights reserved.

2. Main Topics of Discussion

Blake, Moogan, & Bradley (2007) provided rich evidence on howestablishing link services can improve the overall performance ofurban mobility services, creating an empathy between publictransport and citizens which can be a key leverage to increasepatronage. Their paper discussed a new service implemented inBrisbane for late night public transport. The service provides a fi-nancially self-sufficient flat rate taxi service which helps to ensurethat people get home safely, and contributes to the reduction ofstreet violence related to alcohol consumption.

Service performance has been outstanding in the first 18months of service, with a significant increase in patronage andimprovement in average waiting times for taxis. The employmentof taxi rank marshals and security guards to safely and orderly as-sign passengers to vehicles has made a substantial contribution tothe effective operational performance of the system.

There is still the need to gather and analyse further data on theevolution of the service, fleet size, distances travelled, etc. However,reasonable consensus exists on the following success factors forthis new approach to public transport:

� Good market knowledge that reads market needs adequately.� High levels of cooperation between policy makers, operators,

taxi service providers (Black and White Taxis and Yellow Cabs)and other stakeholders (Brisbane City Council and the ValleyTraders Association).� Innovative and confronting marketing campaign.

Jara-Diaz, Tirachini, & Cortes (2007) brought new evidence andknowledge on the advantages of having different levels of

R. Macario, S. Jara-Diaz / Research in Transportation Economics 22 (2008) 12–15 13

aggregation regarding information on demand, as opposed to thetraditional microeconomic models for public transport where op-timisation is supported by total ridership along a line and averagejourney length.

The research work establishes the optimal social value (i.e.,those that minimize operators’ plus users’ costs) for frequency andvehicle size on a public transport corridor with inelastic demand intwo cases: (i) when the demand data is only available at the level ofan entire line, or ridership per direction of movement and (ii) whenit is feasible to obtain more detailed information on the demandstructure, such as origin-destination matrices at the level of busstops or number of passenger who board and alight each bus ateach stop. The results suggest that the underestimation of optimalfrequency and overestimation of vehicle size, when not accountingfor users’ costs (pointed out by Jansson), is even more importantwhen demand is described in detail than when using aggregatedata.

Hensher (2007) described the use of an integrated transport,land use and environmental strategy impact simulation programTRESIS. The program was applied to assess the influence of CO2 onthe Sydney metropolitan area from 2010 to 2015. The main vari-ables applied in the simulation model were improvements in fuelefficiency, a carbon tax, congestion charging, variable user charges,and improvements in public transit.

The research concludes that a mix of technological improve-ments linked to fuel efficiency and pricing of car use offers the mostbalanced way forward in terms of impacts on all stakeholders,especially in preserving government revenue sources and the op-portunity to re-invest back into the transport sector through im-proved multi-modal infrastructure. The advantage of technologicalsolutions over government commitment to introducing a carbontax, variable user charge or congestion charge was emphasised.Although this strategy means a loss of potential revenue to gov-ernment, it has the advantage that investment in technologicalchange is global while non-technological instruments are limited tolocal intervention.

Leiren (2007) brought into the discussion whether subsidiescan have positive effects despite the pitfalls of incumbency. Thecase of Nor-Way Bussekspress which dominates the Norwegianexpress bus market was analysed. The research work addressesa number of barriers to other operators entering the market,including: regulatory, economies of scale, sunk costs, economiesof network and loyalty. There was a specific focus on the so-called ‘innocent’ barriers, for example, brand loyalty, strongfinancial position and the extensive network of sales offices ofincumbents, which effectively deter other operators from marketentry.

Interesting evidence was presented on the effect of the follow-ing categories of cooperation in the express coach market: co-operation in order to supply through-services by extending a localroute; members sharing the logo, the concept of guaranteeingevery passenger a place, tea and coffee onboard, a common edu-cation of the drivers, and common route tables and marketing;cooperatively operating routes with the product owned by two ormore companies; and, finally, agreements with local journeyoperators which allow express coach operators access to additionalresources in case of breakdown, etc.

Loader and Borowski (2007) reported on the Melbourne expe-rience of widening the span of its bus public transport serviceswhich has led to increasing patronage. The following conclusionswere presented:

� ‘Organic’ growth revealed to be generally higher on trunk,higher frequency, long span and commuter-orientated routes,providing evidence that new users will not tolerate poorservice levels.

� Industrial areas may provide new markets.� Services should not be finished before 7–8 pm, because

ˆ On weekends it destroys day trip demand (e.g., shopping andsport).

ˆ On weekdays it destroys commuter demand.� Lunchtime finish destroys significant demand.� High elasticity of extended evening services, especially full fare.� People may be more confident not catching the last bus.� Commuters respond to earlier services (from 6 am).� There is a medium term objective to have regular bus head-

ways aligned to train headways.

Macario and Marques (2007), also see Chapter 22) presentedguidelines to assess the conditions for transferability of measuresfrom a particular city (origin city) to another city (target city). Thetransfer must be predicated upon a detailed understanding of itsenabling context, since any macro-guiding indicator such as thesize of the city, population density, urban sprawl, or even combi-nations of these will inevitably fail to reflect the complexityinvolved.

In practical terms, this means that any new city wishing to adoptmeasures of the same kind as those adopted elsewhere, should firstassess whether these will be effective in their particular context.The pre-conditions for implementation will need to be compre-hensively considered, requiring a well structured approach that hasbeen largely missing. A transferability algorithm was developed topromote a stepwise process. This proposition was extensively dis-cussed with practitioners of 19 cities and used to address the resultsreported by the cities on their own evaluation. This allowed theconditions enabling transferability for each of the 11 clusters ofmeasures (plus complementary actions) to be set up, namely:transport information and management; multimodal interchanges;mobility management; cycling; car sharing and pooling; zones withcontrolled access; clean vehicles and fuels; public transport; goodsdistribution and logistic services; parking management; and urbanroad pricing.

A key conclusion was that stand-alone measures, and even en-tire clusters, are likely to fail in the process of transferring if they areadopted without due regard for the need for a mix of strategies.Although there is no single rule of thumb, the paper concludes thatthere are fundamental associations to be considered for a successfultransfer of best practices along the stepwise decision processreflected in the 10 step transferability algorithm proposed.

Macario (2007) addressed the analysis of the evolution of or-ganizational and institutional framework of urban mobility systemsaround the world. Evidence was presented that, in the large ma-jority of cities, the division between decisions at the strategic,tactical or operational levels is blurred. In urban mobility systemsthe main reason for this outcome is the absence of a definedstrategy for these systems. This absence is confirmed in all urbansettings – town, conurbation, city, metropolitan area, etc. In thesurvey undertaken in different countries and continents, commondifficulties were presented by decision makers confronted with thisconcept – strategy – in the context of the urban mobility systems.From the cities observed, it is clear that there is no bridge betweenthe upper and lower levels of the urban mobility systems, thereforethere is no consistency between the strategic options adopted ateach level.

Four main practical approaches in urban mobility systems werepromoted:

� Vision led – the decision-maker has (or so believes) a clearvision on the policies and measures needed to solve currentproblems and improve system performance, and thereforefocuses all attention and required resources on theirimplementation.

R. Macario, S. Jara-Diaz / Research in Transportation Economics 22 (2008) 12–1514

� Plan oriented – problems are identified, objectives are set andthe measures and policies that best meet those objectives arespecified by analysis leading to the implementation of theplans.� Consensus building – stakeholders are consulted and the im-

pact on these groups is assessed. Measures and policiesimplemented are those with the greatest support from thisprocess of consultation/referendum.� Mixed approaches that involve leadership, planning and

stakeholder consultation.

Magalhaes et al. (2007) presented a review of teleological ap-proaches to transport planning, providing the following benefitsand applications of the framework:

� Structuring transport analysis and planning.� Defining issues to build a diagnostic.� Providing a scope of themes for database modelling.� Indicator development.� Planning programs and evaluation.� Information system design.� Bringing public and technicians closer, as the framework deals

with socially sensible results, etc.

Stone (2007) suggested a return to economic fundamentals plusthe application of recent behavioral research to advance policyadvice. Those fundamentals were discussed in the framework ofa generic decision-making model that re-emphasized the centralityof economic exchange of property rights rather than the con-sumption of physical goods and services, the consequent definitionof economic products that are bounded by natural and economiclimits, and the need to reflect the bounded human analytical andjudgmental capacities being defined recently by behavioral eco-nomics in the institutional structure and governance of decisionmechanisms for exchange of each product. He described how usingthe analytical framework of transaction cost economics, the de-cision-making process and its governance should change as prod-ucts change from products involving small quantities of economicresources with routine decision-making mechanisms controlled byindividuals – a single trip, through choice among medium scaleproducts by small groups applying heuristics – a household’s ve-hicle purchase; to choice of large scale products – access to thetransport network, where experts apply the distilled wisdom ofhigh level analysis and experience.

Applying the model to land transport in a simplified form, hedefined transport service as the right to three products at vastly dif-ferent scales of the resources involved: the right to access the trans-port network of rights of ways and facilities; the right to have a vehiclefor use on the network; and the right to make a trip in the vehicle onthe network. The institutional arrangements and governance of theentities suggested by the model for making decisions on the supplyand use of these three products were described respectively as a re-gional collective of households plus government representatives,individual households, and individuals. The institutional arrange-ments suggested by the decision-making model differ from the re-cent public/private approach yet provide a rational basis for theprovision and governance of land transport service and the appro-priate role for each of the public and private stakeholders.

Walker (2007) raised the issue of conflict between patronageand coverage in the design of services and contended that it ispossible to create a language in which to discuss those hard choiceswith the public, so that elected leaders can make informed andquantified decisions about those choices that reflect their constit-uents’ values. The key idea is to use the consultation process toeducate constituents and decision-makers about the patronage-coverage trade-off, and then elicit a direction in the form of

a percentage of service resources to be devoted to each of thesepurposes. The role of the public transport funding agency and op-erator, in this scheme, is to document that the service they areproviding reflects the particular trade-off chosen by the publicthrough their elected leaders.

There is research supporting the notion that for public transportto succeed there is a need to approach niche markets instead ofcontinuing to strengthen the mass transit focus. This means thatdifferentiation should focus on service and not on mode. Goodexamples are the informal transport network in South America orintegrated services with collective taxis in Europe (e.g., Nether-lands). In both cases the niche markets build on a thin market forthe traditional mass transit service.

3. Discussion

A number of conclusions were reached in the six discussionsessions building on the preliminary work of the authors of theeleven workshop papers. One recurrent conclusion was the rec-ognition of a number of underlying elements which conditionpatronage.

It is important to address the strategic, tactical and operationaldecision levels in the analysis of mobility systems taking into ac-count the blurred division between these levels and the pitfalls thatoccur due to use of the tactical level to cover gaps on the strategiclevel. The long tradition of developing the strategic elements ishindering the next steps in managing mobility systems that can beguided by a clear strategic definition. In addition, emerging suc-cessful partnerships provide evidence that there is a need to haveconsistency between actors as well as across decision levels.

In general terms we can say that the quality of the outputs of theurban mobility system depends not only on the quality of its inputsbut also on the overall quality of management of that city, whichbecomes an input of the system because it is part of the potential toproduce outputs. The interplay between the different policies andinstitutions that steer the relevant urban processes, such as land-use, socio-economic development and environment, also inputsinto the urban mobility system.

In a city the definition of strategic objectives starts with thedecision-makers’ interpretation of several elements, namely:

� the importance of the needs (or aspirations) of the citizens;� the importance of the problems to be solved, measured

through their impacts on the social and economic life of thecity; and� the assessment of the probability of success of each of the ac-

tions and policies envisaged as potential solutions for thoseneeds and problems, as well as to the superior objectives ofsustainable development of the urban environment.

Therefore objectives are defined upstream of the prioritizationof actions and policies. Indeed, whatever the context, the formu-lation of a strategy always requires the establishment of a hierarchyof objectives and the setting of the level of their ambition.

Cities differ substantially in their development strategies. Evenwhere we are dealing with similar problems, each city is condi-tioned by choices made in the past that configure a different de-parture point for the problem under analysis, and consequentlydifferent perceptions are derived as to which are the main prob-lems and which are the best solutions to mitigate them.

The workshop highlighted that increasing patronage is influ-enced by the following:

� Culture,� Maturity of relationships between agents, and� Leadership, skills and competence of agents.

R. Macario, S. Jara-Diaz / Research in Transportation Economics 22 (2008) 12–15 15

Service design and planning are key determinants of patronage.A number of aspects have been highlighted in the different expe-riences of traditional services and the so called missing links, theseinclude: frequency; span; reliability; market oriented services (e.g.,segmentation); comfort; information; users’ financial status;commercial speed; connectivity (integration, seamless travelling);and limiting alternatives (e.g., car restrictions).

However, despite the importance of all these elements, trade-offs are imposed between commercial (financial focused) and socialobjectives. Conflict tends to emerge between patronage and terri-torial coverage and between financially self-sustained and optimalsubsidy dependent (performance oriented) services, particularlywhen, under very specific circumstances, subsidies might producea positive result.

There is considerable room for improvement in the field ofcontracts and institutional relations. The pressure introduced bythese instruments has led to a biased focus on contractual com-pliance over real system performance. Two of the identified causesof this outcome are:

� An overemphasis on contractual concerns that hinders thesuccess of partnerships and takes away the focus from moremajor concerns.� Incentives addressing route contracts can cause conflict be-

tween operators. Incentives work more effectively for area ormanagement contracts.

A fundamental question dominates the ongoing debate – Whatis the future of public transport in the face of a growing, strong andcompetitive trend in favour of car use? The answers obtained canbe divided into the following domains:

� More opportunities for innovative bus services given financialconstraints associated to rail expansion;� Limitations to car use;� Managing parking space, exposure pricing (emission, conges-

tion, etc.);� Adequate pricing of the role of car in the accessibility/mobility

chain (system perspective).

Finally we concluded that transferability of experience can bea powerful tool, but also a dangerous one if some elements are notduly considered. These include:

� Transferability has to be addressed at all decision levels.� A relatively similar context between a reference and a target

city is more important than the clustering of cities.� A need for a clear idea on strategy and purpose before trans-

ferring evidence and impact.� An evaluation of needs to address relevance, efficiency, effec-

tiveness, utility and sustainability.

Improvement of the urban mobility system can be achievedthrough development of simple and easy to implement, gaps inservice delivery. The Night Link service in Brisbane provides suchevidence but brings to our attention the fact that other soft devices(like reliability of information, tariff integration between conven-tional and non-conventional services) can be the answer toa number of service attributes that so far have not been delivered tothe clients’ expectation.

4. Future Challenges

The workshop concluded by listing a number of topics consid-ered as future challenges to be addressed in future conferences oncompetition and ownership in land passenger transport. These are

� Analysing the effects of exposure charges (all forms of exter-nalities) on the performance of the operator.� Observing the collateral effects from exposure charges (look at

involuntary loops).� Deepening the analysis of the performance of prescriptive

versus collaborative contracts.� Developing of tools for strategic planning.� Assessing performance of decision-making in being publicly

accountable in a sustainable way.� Recognising the fundamental role that frequency and reliability

play in user perception and valuation of public transportsystems.� Recognising the need for optimal subsidies for the appropriate

dimension of frequencies, vehicle size and route structures.

References

Blake, P., Moogan, E. & Bradley, P. (2007). Nightlink – public transport for the partycrowd. Presented at Thredbo 10.

Hensher, D., (2007). Climate change, enhanced greenhouse gas emissions andpassenger transport – what can we do to make a difference? Presented atThredbo 10.

Jara-Diaz, S., Tirachini, A & Cortes, C. (2007). Modelling public transport corridorswith aggregate and disaggregate demand. Presented at Thredbo 10.

Leiren, M.D., (2007). Public funding to long distance buses - an entry barrier ora necessity? Presented at Thredbo 10.

Loader, C. & Borowski, D., (2007). Growing bus patronage - the Melbourne expe-rience. Presented at Thredbo 10.

Macario, R., (2007). What is strategy in urban mobility systems? Presented atThredbo 10.

Macario, R. and Marques, C. (2007). Transferability of sustainable urban mobilitymeasures. Presented at Thredbo 10.

Magalhaes, M.T.Q., Silveira, L.S. da Cruz, Pereira, E., da Silva, H.A., de Andrade,Yamashita, T.M., et al. (2007). Teleological framework for transport planningand evaluation: a tool in the search for integrated and meaningful solutions forbetter results. Presented at Thredbo 10.

Stone, A. (2007). Institutional reform: a decision-making process view. Presented atThredbo 10.

Walker, J., (2007). Purpose-driven public transport: creating a clear conversationabout public transport goals. Presented at Thredbo 10.