The changes in public transport ridership can be quantified as fare elasticities that are useful inputs to inform planning and policymaking, particularly for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in developing city contexts. This research provides new evidence to the limited literature in the Global South about revealed preferences fare elasticity from disaggregated data and improves our knowledge of BRT passengers’ travel behavior providing insights on the important role of achieving an affordable fare. Using a 9-year smartcard data, we show that in a spatially segregated city, such as Bogotá, the BRT fare has differential effects according to the socio-economic characteristics of its users and the time-of-the-day. To estimate the fare elasticity considering the socio-economic heterogeneity of users, we proposed a clustering algorithm based on the station-demand profiles and an indicative average per capita income associated with the station catchment area. The results show significant statistical differences in elasticities between the three identified clusters. The stations located in the urban periphery, associated with low-income areas, show null or low response to the fare changes, as opposed to the stations located on the east edge of the city (wealthiest zones). These findings show that a flat fare in the BRT system has differential fare effects on users, therefore, considering those differences when designing the fare policy scheme would contribute to starting to close accessibility gaps in the city.

公共交通乘客量的变化可以量化为票价弹性，这些弹性是为规划和决策提供信息的有用输入，特别是对于发展中城市环境中的快速公交 (BRT) 系统。这项研究为全球南方有限的文献提供了新的证据，这些文献涉及从分类数据中揭示的偏好票价弹性，并提高了我们对 BRT 乘客出行行为的了解，提供了对实现可负担票价的重要作用的见解。我们使用 9 年的智能卡数据表明，在一个空间隔离的城市，如波哥大，BRT 票价根据其用户的社会经济特征和一天中的时间具有不同的影响。考虑到用户的社会经济异质性，估计票价弹性，我们提出了一种基于车站需求概况和与车站集水区相关的指示性平均人均收入的聚类算法。结果表明，三个识别的集群之间的弹性有显着的统计差异。与位于城市东部边缘（最富裕地区）的车站相比，位于城市边缘的车站与低收入地区相关，对票价变化的反应为零或反应缓慢。这些发现表明，BRT 系统中的统一票价对用户有不同的票价影响，因此，在设计票价政策方案时考虑这些差异将有助于开始缩小城市的可达性差距。结果表明，三个识别的集群之间的弹性有显着的统计差异。与位于城市东部边缘（最富裕地区）的车站相比，位于城市边缘的车站与低收入地区相关，对票价变化的反应为零或反应缓慢。这些发现表明，BRT 系统中的统一票价对用户有不同的票价影响，因此，在设计票价政策方案时考虑这些差异将有助于开始缩小城市的可达性差距。结果表明，三个识别的集群之间的弹性有显着的统计差异。与位于城市东部边缘（最富裕地区）的车站相比，位于城市边缘的车站与低收入地区相关，对票价变化的反应为零或反应缓慢。这些发现表明，BRT 系统中的统一票价对用户有不同的票价影响，因此，在设计票价政策方案时考虑这些差异将有助于开始缩小城市的可达性差距。