Allocating Public Transit Costs Among Participants

A methodology was developed to aid in the selection of procedures to allocate regional transit costs among participants. The methodology provides a means for comparing a variety of allocation procedures, based on the equity of the cost allocation and the cost to use the procedure. Measures of equity were developed to allow comparison of each procedure with a prespecified ideal allocation. Data from a 100% sample of a regional transit service in Barnstable County, Mass., were used to illustrate the use of the procedure. Ten procedures were analyzed, each having different variables, data sampling frequencies, and weighting coefficients. The 10 procedures were compared to an allocation based on each participant's individual cost. Results showed that use of the methodology allowed elimination of several allocation procedures from further consideration.