Early in 2023, the Southeastem Transportation Authority (STA), a poblic agenoy responsble for serving the commuter rail transportation needs of a Eastem city, was foced with rising deficits on its system. Also, because of a fiscal austerity program at both the federal and state levels, the hope of recelving additional subbidy support was slim. The board of directoes of STA asked the system manager to explore alternatives to alleviate the financial plight of the system. The first suggeston made by the manager was to instbute a major cutback in service. This cutback would result in no service atter 7:00 p.m, no service on weekends, and a reduced schedule of service during the midday period Monday through Fnday. The STA board indicated that this alemative was not likely to be politically acceptable and could oniy be considered as a last resort. The board suggested that because it had been over five years since the last tare incroase, a fare increase from the current lovel of $1.00 to a new invel of $1.25 should be conaldered. Accordingly, the board ordered the marager to conduct a study of the likely impact of this proposed fare hike. The system manager has collected data on important veriables thought to have a significant impact on the demand for tides on $ IA. These data have been collected over the past 28 years and include the following vanables. Price per ride (in cents): This variable is designated x1 in the following data table. Population in the metropowtan area serviced by STA (in thousands): This variable is designated X2 in the table below. Disposable per capita income (in dollars): This variable is designated X3 in the table below. Parking rate per hour in the downtown area (in cents): This variable is designated X4 in the table below. Price Dispesable synifeant at the o. os level. the 0.05 level. Early in 2023, the Southeastem Transportation Authority (STA), a poblic agenoy responsble for serving the commuter rail transportation needs of a Eastem city, was foced with rising deficits on its system. Also, because of a fiscal austerity program at both the federal and state levels, the hope of recelving additional subbidy support was slim. The board of directoes of STA asked the system manager to explore alternatives to alleviate the financial plight of the system. The first suggeston made by the manager was to instbute a major cutback in service. This cutback would result in no service atter 7:00 p.m, no service on weekends, and a reduced schedule of service during the midday period Monday through Fnday. The STA board indicated that this alemative was not likely to be politically acceptable and could oniy be considered as a last resort. The board suggested that because it had been over five years since the last tare incroase, a fare increase from the current lovel of $1.00 to a new invel of $1.25 should be conaldered. Accordingly, the board ordered the marager to conduct a study of the likely impact of this proposed fare hike. The system manager has collected data on important veriables thought to have a significant impact on the demand for tides on $ IA. These data have been collected over the past 28 years and include the following vanables. Price per ride (in cents): This variable is designated x1 in the following data table. Population in the metropowtan area serviced by STA (in thousands): This variable is designated X2 in the table below. Disposable per capita income (in dollars): This variable is designated X3 in the table below. Parking rate per hour in the downtown area (in cents): This variable is designated X4 in the table below. Price Dispesable synifeant at the o. os level. the 0.05 level