Brendon Hemily, an MIT PhD graduate and independent consultant in public transportation, gave a fascinating talk entitled “Transit Fare Policy and Payment; Perspectives, Challenges, and Developments.” The presentation took place at the UT-ITE seminar series on March 15, 2019. Dr. Hemily’s presentation was welcomed by a huge audience consisting of professors, postdoc and graduate students.
He began by sharing his education background and career path in the public transportation sector. He worked for the Canadian Urban Transit Association for 15 years, and continued his career as an independent public transit consultant for 19 years.
According to Dr. Hemily, from an economic perspective, transit fares should be priced by distance and time of day (peak/off-peak) to reflect the cost structure. However, fare policy setting is more complicated in reality, due to a factors such as multiple conflicting objectives, and public and political acceptability.
Dr. Hemily looked at the history of fare structures in different cities. He found a general tendency toward simplification of the fare structure and number of zones, which is a user-friendly approach for transit riders. He believes that the introduction of new technologies can help to introduce more complex fare structures while keeping it simple to use for riders.
Dr. Hemily concluded his talk by highlighting the different perceptions of equity which lead to complexity in the logic of transit fare structure.
These are just a few points from Dr. Hemily’s presentation. For the full seminar, please see his presentation slides and video of the presentation.
Dr. Brendon Hemily is an independent transit consultant with 35 years of international transit experience. He focuses on best practices and innovation in the transit industry, in the areas of policy, management, planning, and advanced technology. He has been involved in fare policy analyses in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. From 1985 to 2000, Brendon worked at the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), where he was responsible for all of CUTA’s research, statistical, and technical services. Brendon has a PhD in Transportation and a MS in Civil Engineering, both from MIT, and a BA in Economics from Columbia University. He is incoming Chair of the TRB Public Transportation Group, which has 15 committees, and chairs the Advanced Public Transit Systems (APTS) Committee of ITS Canada.
Dr. Hemily is one of five instructors for Public Transit Short Courses professional development sessions offered by UTTRI August 21-23, 2019.