Reducing fare evasion

Background

LUAS, Dublin's light rail network, is an extremely popular and well-loved transit system. Every year it carries over 34 million passengers in a timely, efficient and safe way on modern spacious state-of-the-art trams. Even though the overwhelming majority of passengers do the right thing and pay their fare a small minority do not, to the detriment of the transport system, the train operator and the millions of honest fare-paying passengers.

What We Did

Using insights from behavioural economics and the psychology of persuasion, INFLUENCE AT WORK investigations pinpointed nearly 40 interventions to tackle the problem of fare evasion.

Outcome

A programme of work which included the running of social norms experiments, a programme to change public perceptions that evaders are cheaters, a redesign of the penalty fares system, staff training, social media and communication campaigns.  The result was a 16.2% reduction in fare evasion measured over a 40 week period.

We have replicated a similar approach in Sydney, Australia leading to a 21% reduction in fare evasion. Similar studies are now being carried out in 4 cities across France.