Free Public Transit: Missoula, MT, #freetransit big success, more service planned

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Missoula, MT, #freetransit big success, more service planned

As you may recall, in January 2015, Missoula city and county governments joined forces with 13 other local businesses and organizations to invest in a three-year Zero-Fare demonstration project with the goals of removing barriers to riding public transit, helping buses operate more efficiently, and increasing Mountain Line ridership for the overall health of our community.
By all measures, the Zero-Fare project has been an incredible success, demonstrating how thoughtful public investments can be leveraged with private donations to achieve important community goals.

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.