Each dot is a route, sized by its passengers, and the line is the fit to the dots. Among short and medium routes, fares at a given distance still differ several-fold.
What this shows: The chart plots Routes and Log-log fit to the plotted routes on a vertical axis of Average fare ($).
Conditions and method
Status: descriptive (a pattern in the data, not a causal estimate).
On the full 2020 to 2025 route-quarter panel the distance elasticity is 0.23 in both of its eras (2020 and 2021, and 2022 on), flatter than the 0.33 on the plotted routes. The panel starts in 2020, so these two eras compare the pandemic years with the recovery, not the years before and after COVID.