Commuting to work in cities: Bus, car, or train?

In this paper, we study the commuting behavior of citizens living in or near a city who must decide how to get to work. Such citizens can use their own car and drive to work or they can take public transport. The two public transport options we consider are the bus and train. In this context, we perform two tasks. First, we analyze the choice of car versus train. We calculate the deadweight loss from the negative externality (traffic congestion) generated by car travel and then discuss how a toll can achieve the efficient allocation of commuters between the car and train modes of transport. Second, we analyze the choice of car versus bus. Again, we calculate the deadweight loss from the traffic congestion resulting from car travel and discuss how a toll can achieve the efficient allocation of commuters between the car and bus modes of transport, which would benefit all commuters.