Fare's fair? Concessionary travel policy and social justice

Abstract

This paper argues that transport has an important influence on individuals’ welfare and therefore transport policy can be readily analysed from social justice and welfare policy perspectives – yet only rarely ever is. The paper develops a justice framework in which to assess the ‘fairness’ of the eligibility criteria used in concessionary fare policies – specifically the justice principles of need, desert, equality, option choices and affordability. The paper examines a concessionary bus fares policy from a social justice perspective, including an empirical assessment of who in practice benefits most from it and how these findings measure against justice principles.