Improving the passenger transport for the ageing population: Discrete Choice Data and Survey

Data were collected online in July 2025 by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to evaluate three public-transport fare options in an academic discrete choice experiment.

Alternatives A and B represent the actual public-transport scenarios in Queensland, and alternative C represents a switch to a private mode given those fare options. The study is set in Queensland’s 2024 policy context, when the local government announced a AU$0.50 public-transport fare (fare A) as a strategy to encourage a shift from private to public transport. As of the information-collection date in May 2025, the government reported that trips had increased by less than 20%.

DATA COLLECTION

The data were collected through an online survey administered to pre-recruited panels drawn from the database of a private data collection company. The dataset was cleaned using the following criteria:

1. Surveys lasting less than eight minutes were discarded immediately. The scenario-selection questions were presented at the second minute to maximise respondent attention in the early stages of the survey.

2. Fieldwork lasted two weeks. We sought a balanced sample across three key dimensions - gender, age, and income - allowing deviations from the population benchmark of at most 15%, based on statistics for the study area. Individuals under 18 and those with incomes below AU$20,000 were not included due to privacy constraints that make recruiting this population more difficult.

3. Two attention-check (control) questions were included. Respondents who answered both consistently were retained; those who did not were excluded.

For further details on the data cleaning process, see the thesis by Mafla Hernandez (2025), in the “Data Processing” section (currently in press).

The data were anonymised with respect to respondents’ names, email addresses, and locations, and participants provided informed consent.