One of the reasons to subsidise public transport is to improve the mobility of low-income groups by providing affordable public transport; however, the literature describes a situation whereby those with a low income are unable to afford the cheapest tickets per trip, i.e. travelcards, as they usually require a considerable up-front cost. In this study, we use a large dataset from the Swedish National Travel Survey to investigate whether, and if so how, income explains monthly travelcard possession among individuals for whom this would have been the least expensive option. We find a robust positive relationship between income and travelcard possession among low-income earners, indicating that those with a low income pay more to use public transport than more affluent individuals. As the accessibility of low-income groups is an important motivation for public transport subsidies, the findings from this study have important policy implications.

中文翻译：

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贫穷很贵吗？瑞典的公共交通

补贴公共交通的原因之一是通过提供负担得起的公共交通来改善低收入群体的流动性；然而，文献描述了一种情况，即低收入者无法负担每次旅行的最便宜的机票，即旅行卡，因为他们通常需要相当大的前期成本。在这项研究中，我们使用来自瑞典国家旅行调查的大型数据集来调查收入是否以及如果是这样，在个人中是否可以解释每月拥有旅行卡的原因，而这对他们来说是最便宜的选择。我们发现低收入者的收入和旅行卡持有量之间存在稳健的正相关关系，这表明低收入者比富裕者支付更多使用公共交通工具的费用。