Feasibility Assessment of Family-Friendly Transit Fares

Families face a range of challenges when navigating public transportation systems in the United States, and those challenges extend far beyond fare payment. While many agencies have implemented individual fare capping to improve affordability, current fare structures, policies, and system designs do not reflect the full set of needs associated with traveling with or as a family. Issues related to strollers, boarding with small children, ride-free policies for young riders, school-age access, seating and space constraints, accessibility for caregivers and dependents, and other family-oriented considerations all contribute to inconsistent or difficult user experiences across agencies. These gaps have significant implications for household mobility and affordability. In 2023, transportation accounted for an average of $13,174, or 17 percent of annual income, for U.S. households—making it the second-largest expenditure after housing. Without clear, consistent, and family-friendly transit policies, families often encounter financial and practical barriers to using public transportation for daily travel. These challenges can influence household travel behavior, potentially reducing ridership, limiting children’s independent mobility, and undermining agencies’ goals related to equity, customer experience, and community access. At the federal level, there is increasing emphasis on improving safety, affordability, and the overall ease of travel for families. Recent research—such as the forthcoming TCRP B-53 report, Addressing Public Transportation Needs of Women and Families—identifies many of these concerns, but agencies lack practical, operational guidance on how to address them. The opportunity now is not simply to restate the needs, but to determine how agencies can operationalize family-friendly policies and practices within existing service, infrastructure, and fare systems. Given these dynamics, there is a clear need for research that examines how transit agencies can develop and implement family-friendly transit policies, including but not limited to fare capping. Such research should consider policy, governance, operational, technological, customer service, and accessibility factors, and should identify models that agencies of different sizes and contexts can realistically adopt.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5999
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $200,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project A-57

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Transit Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Schwager, Dianne

• Start Date: 20251208
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Families; Fares; Feasibility analysis; Public transit
• Subject Areas: Finance; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01973733
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project A-57
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 8 2025 8:00PM