Free Transit

Henry Grabar, writing for The Atlantic Cities, reports on the effect making transit free had on the French town of Châteauroux:

The motivations for making a transit system free are obvious. Increased ridership can relieve traffic, improve the environment, boost the system’s efficiency, give residents more spending money, help the poor, and rejuvenate central business districts. Unfortunately, the Châteauroux report contains little large-scale analysis of the effects of the system.

But as it turns out, the change nearly paid for itself. Forty-seven percent of bus-goers were already riding for free, and tickets covered only 14 percent of the city’s transit expenses. By slightly increasing the transit tax on big local businesses while eliminating the costs of printing, ticket-punching technology and the human infrastructure of ticket sales, the city turned a profit on the transit system in ’03, ’04, ’05, and ’07. Since ’08, returns have not been as positive, though the report attributes that to a shift in control from the city to the region.

I’d be curious to see an in depth, system wide study on whether making transit free actually costs more or not. On the one hand it definitely increases expenditures while reducing a somewhat meager income stream. On the other hand, the reduced congestion and demand for expensive road improvement projects could result in sizable savings. In addition, free transit could translate to reduced need for cars which would result in reduced demand for parking which, in turn, could lead to more efficient and productive land use patterns. So it’s possible that free transit could eliminate or reduce both road capacity expansion projects and projects to extend infrastructure beyond current municipal boundaries. It is most likely a very localized question but I could see it penciling out both ways.