Free Public Transit: Free transit saves money...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Free transit saves money...

To tame traffic, make subways & buses free - yes, free
By TED KHEEL
Thursday, January 10th 2008, 4:00 AM

...With more people taking advantage of free transit, traffic would fall by a quarter in Manhattan's most congested area, the Central Business District, and by nearly a tenth citywide. New Yorkers would save a staggering $4 billion in recovered productivity (time that would otherwise have been spent languishing in traffic) and another $2 billion in savings associated with reduced pollution, fewer auto crashes and lower insurance costs....

Free is Cheaper

How is free transit cheaper? Don't you have to make up for lost fare revenue? The answer is that your city will save so much money in other areas, and quality of life will improve so much that you will get back much more than the lost fares. Some examples are listed below. If you want to see specific numbers, see our spreadsheet here.

Increased return on investment. Public transit involves large fixed costs. When fares are gone, there are more riders per vehicle, getting more value from the investment.
Reduced parking costs. With free transit, fewer people will park downtown. City parking authorities can cost $180 million a year, paid by fines, which are just a tax on customers and delivery services.

Reduced traffic congestion. Studies have shown that the time lost in traffic costs urban economies hundreds of millions of dollars.
Less money exported for gasoline. A medium sized city can export 1 million dollars a day in gasoline money for cars. Free buses will reduce this considerably.
Better quality of life, priceless. In Hasselt, Belgium, when fares were removed, people in hospital started receiving more visitors.