公共自行車費率對捷運乘客轉乘使用之影響

Abstract

近來各國皆提倡使用低污染、低耗能的綠色運具，許多城市紛紛興起公共自行車熱潮。為鼓勵民眾使用公共自行車作為短程接駁運具，臺北市政府與台灣捷安特股份有限公司攜手建立「YouBike微笑單車」。2015年4月1日之前實施的YouBike會員前30分鐘補助政策為促使公共自行車成功推廣、衝高使用率的最大關鍵，然而免費時段應為短期推廣培養民眾使用習慣之措施，隨著YouBike系統周轉次數的提高，營運量呈現穩定成長，如何依循使用者付費的方向訂定適當的費率結構、減低政府負擔並建立公共自行車的永續財務模式是一大課題。又因公共自行車為近幾年出現的新興公共運輸系統，國內外目前關於公共自行車費率之學術研究也相對較少。 由於費率與使用行為關係為公共自行車永續經營規劃的關鍵資訊，本研究以台北捷運之市政府、台北101/世貿、永春與象山等四個車站出入乘客為樣本，應用個體選擇理論構建捷運乘客使用公共自行車轉乘之選擇模式，進而探討民眾使用行為之費率彈性，以瞭解民眾選擇使用YouBike的機率分別與費率結構中之『基本使用費率』、『基本使用費率時段』、『超過基本時段後之累進費率』間之關係，建立更貼近現實的使用者選擇行為模式。並應用潛在類別模式針對使用者進行市場區隔，探討不同族群的行為模式與選擇偏好，幫助瞭解台北市公共自行車使用者之特性，對應提出不同族群的經營策略方向，作為未來營運者訂定費率結構及研擬相關優惠措施之參考依據。 研究結果發現基本使用費率、基本使用費率時段、接駁距離、該接駁路線是否有公車可以服務、月收入、家中持有自行車數量、是否有YouBike轉乘捷運的經驗會影響使用者選擇YouBike作為轉乘接駁運具。潛在類別模式將樣本分為非經常性使用族群及經常性使用族群，影響前者使用的關鍵為基本使用費率，後者對於基本使用費率與基本使用費率時段的重視程度相近。由政策分析可以得知，以2015年4月1日之後YouBike實際調整費率後的情境為出發點，給予所有捷運通勤族乘客YouBike基本使用時段費率轉乘優惠，能夠使整體使用率從0.27598提升至0.402。上述發現提供西方地區無法提供之實證經驗，補足學術理論之地域差異性。

Green transportation is advocated by national governments in recent years because of its low pollution and low energy consumption. At the same time, public bike systems (PBSs) are booming in many cities around the world. In order to encourage people to use public bikes for short distance trips, the Taipei City Government cooperated with the Giant Bicycle Inc. in 2009 to launch the YouBike scheme. The free-30-minute policy, which means the government absorbed the charges for the first 30 minutes of all YouBike usage, was conducted to promote the popular system. The strategy yielded satisfactory results, with a boost in use and an increase of YouBike stations in Taipei City. Despite the hike in YouBike riderships, revenues have lagged because most riders return the bikes within 30 minutes. It is important to identify user-paying principles to design an appropriate fare structure, relaxing the financial burden on the government, and lead YouBike towards sustainable development. Further, PBS is a new public transportation system gaining popularity in the recent years, however very few studies have focused on fare structures of PBSs. Studies about the relationships between fares and user behaviors can provide useful information when planning a sustainable PBS. This study uses a stated preference survey to collect sample data in Taipei 101, Taipei City Hall, Yongchun and Xiangshan metro stations for the estimations of discrete choice models of metro passengers, with the form of Binary Logit Model. The models were then used to forecast the probability of using PBS as a transfer mode under different PBS fare structures consisting of three components: basic usage fee, period of basic usage fee, and subsequent usage fee. Further, this study employs the latent class model to identify segment-specific preferences and traveler profiles of each segment. This is important for acknowledging the users’ behaviors in real life and developing effective pricing policy.

The utility functions of using PBS as a transfer mode obtained in this study consists of the following explanatory variables：basic usage fee, period of basic usage fee, distance from metro station to destination, bus service along transfer route, bicycle ownership, and experience of using YouBike as a transfer mode. The latent class models categorized the observations into two segments: "regular users" and "irregular users". Among the explanatory variables, the basic usage fee was found to be the key factor in explaining the choice behaviors of the regular users, the basic usage fee and period of basic usage fee are both vital to explain the irregular users’ behaviors. The results of policy analysis show that giving a discount to metro passengers who use YouBike as a transfer mode will increase the usage rate of PBS from 0.27598 to 0.402. All of the above findings provide the empirical evidence that can't be gained from Western societies to contribute the theory development of the field by supplementing regional differences.