Free Public Transit: Young people in the US cannot afford cars

Monday, November 24, 2014

Young people in the US cannot afford cars

TransUnion: Auto Loan Delinquency Rate and Debt Rise Again: "CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - Nov 24, 2014) - Auto loan delinquency rates jumped nearly 13% in the last year to close Q3 2014 at 1.16%. At the same time, auto loan debt rose for the 14th straight quarter to $17,352. The latest TransUnion auto loan report also found that delinquency rates increased most for the youngest population subset with those under the age of 30 seeing a nearly 18% rise."

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.