Free Public Transit: Supply-side environmentalism won't work

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Supply-side environmentalism won't work

There are at least one billion people seeking the sprawl lifestyle. This is a tremendous economic and political force.

Protesting against fossil-fuel energy supply, such as coal-fired power plants, arctic-oil, or tarsands cannot overcome such a force. And what's worse, it puts environmentalists on the side of denying the dream.

If we truly want to undo sprawl. We have to offer a dream that is better.

We have to provide a car-free urban lifestyle.

The first step is fare-free buses. Then fare-free light rail and streetcars.

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.