Should free public transportation be expanded?

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By Stéphane Amant - Senior Manager

It’s a recurring topic in the world of public transportation: Free or not free?

The This debate has been going on for a long time between its supporters (who are fiercely committed to the various benefits of public transit and see free transit as an obvious way to increase its modal share) and its opponents (who legitimately argue that public transit represents a cost to the community and that free public transit would dangerously undermine their ability to invest in the public transit of the future, especially if ridership increases).

Even if it means disappointing some people, we will not take a stance in this article on either of these opposing positions. Instead, we propose to focus on some recently published research on The Impact of Making Public Transportation Completely Free in a Medium-Sized French Metropolitan Area (in this case, Dunkirk, whose urban community has a population of approximately 200,000). This study was conducted by researchers from the VIGS association [1] who took advantage of the Simultaneous implementation of completely free public transit and a new, more efficient bus service to begin its analysis.

Using a methodology based primarily on interviews (approximately 100) and questionnaires (approximately 2,000), the analysis explored several areas:

• The effects of a new, completely free public transportation system on mobility and lifestyles;
• The psychological mechanisms that drive change;
• The barriers to mobility and public transit use that continue to exist despite the fact that public transit is free.

The results are enlightening: A 50% increase in new users, half of whom are using the service as an alternative to driving, and an 85% increase in ridership over the past year. The financial success of the offering is therefore beyond question; it is particularly tangible. Of course, the Free access encourages people to travel more (the so-called “rebound effect”): as a result, about one-third of new users take the opportunity to travel more. However, due to the high level of substitution mentioned above, The environmental record remains far better than the previous situation. Another useful lesson: Nearly one-third of users say they visit the city center more often. This message is particularly directed at business owners who argue that car access to downtown areas must be maintained to preserve their businesses. The experience in Dunkirk seems to show that, in reality, the opposite is true. Finally, let’s note, through a few very telling quotes, that Several psychological barriers are overcome because it's free :

“As for the bus, I hadn’t taken it in ages—I’d stopped using it 15 years ago. I didn’t understand the route network anymore, and I wasn’t really making the effort. When I found out it was going to be free, I knew I’d start taking it again. I’d made up my mind: on September 1, I’d leave the car behind and switch to the bus.”“Ultimately, even though I can afford it, I still think a ticket for a ten-minute ride is pretty expensive. Psychologically, for a short trip, that’s still a deterrent, so we end up taking the car.” Even with this fragmented view of the study’s findings, one might be tempted to consider it relevant to extend free public transportation to other metropolitan areas of comparable size, for example. However, due to a lack of economic data, it is impossible to reach a conclusion. This proves that this This is a highly complex issue, the town of Manosque (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) has resumed charging for bus fares after nine years of free service, despite a steady increase in ridership [2]. Wouldn't partial free access be a better compromise between environmental benefits and investment capacity? How can we best integrate this free service with emerging modes of transportation to create a multimodal offering attractive enough to drastically reduce solo car use? If we consider (as Carbone 4 does) that Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is the mother of all battles, so maybe the Free public transportation is indeed a solution that should be replicated in all metropolitan areas with sufficient population density. This decision must be made with full knowledge of the facts because The additional resources that local governments will need to raise will have to come from elsewhere : Perhaps we should “simply” ask the residents of these urban areas where they should set their priorities?

Article written by Stéphane Amant - Senior Manager

Sources: [1] VIGS [2] France TV