Sectional evaluation of free student passes: impacts on gender, education and type of institution.

Abstract

This study aims to understand the impacts of the Student Free Pass in Maceió-AL. The work focuses on three aspects to demonstrate this impact: a) it shows the legal instruments that deal with the public policy of the Student Free Pass in the municipality, which regulate the conditions, parameters and standards for the student to have access to the right, b) analyses data generated by electronic ticketing from the period between 2016 and 2023 in order to identify the general usage behaviour of users, focusing on students and c) studies the variation in the number of student registrations considering demographic characteristics such as gender, level of education and distribution between public and private educational institutions. The results show increases in student boarding’s causing the share of student users to almost double. The expansion occurred for all levels of education, and more markedly among female students and students from public institutions, which shows that the zero student tariff policy contributes to promoting social inclusion, improving equal opportunities and expanding the access to the Public Collective Transport system, especially for the most vulnerable population.