In India, where the coronavirus lockdown affects 1.3 billion people, the effect is a big contrast to a place where the city streets are normally thronged with life in all its guises.
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Bus travel is now free for all passengers throughout Luxembourg. EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND
Would You Ditch Your Car if Public Transport Was Free? Here’s What Researchers Have Found
Luxembourg recently became the first country in the world to make all public transport free. As of March 1 2020, all buses, trains and trams throughout the country can be boarded without paying a fare – the largest area to institute free public transport for both residents and tourists so far.
Free public transport, however, isn’t a new idea. Cities and towns have been experimenting with it since 1960 – Luxembourg merely clinches the title of the first country to roll it out nationwide. Today, at least 98 cities and towns around the world have some form of free public transport. In some areas, only residents can use it, or certain groups, such as senior citizens.
It’s often introduced to encourage people to use their cars less – reducing congestion in cities and lowering air pollution and carbon emissions.
But does it work?
Luxembourg is the first country in the world to abolish public transport fares nationwide. EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND
No ticket to ride
Economists tend to argue that free public transport is irrational and uneconomical because it generates “useless mobility”. This means that people will choose to move more simply because it’s free, increasing the costs of transport operators and subsidies for local authorities, while ultimately increasing emissions from public transport.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that introducing free public transport increases the number of people using it. Strong passenger growth has been reported everywhere free public transport has been introduced, and the effects are more evident after several years.
Research has also found that when fares are removed, only a small number of people who previously travelled by car make the switch. New passengers attracted by it tend to be pedestrians and cyclists rather than car drivers. The picture from most cities where free public transport has been introduced is that the increased passenger numbers overwhelmingly come from people who might have walked, cycled or not travelled otherwise.
Three years after fares were abolished in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, the number of bus passengers increased from 55% to 63%, while car journeys decreased only slightly (from 31% to 28%), together with walking (from 12% to 7%). Cycling (1%) and others (1%) remained the same.
Reducing congestion and air pollution requires fewer cars. Kichigin/Shutterstock
Experts from the Cosmopolis Centre in Brussels agree that the effects of free public transport on car traffic levels are marginal, arguing that by itself free public transport cannot significantly reduce car use and traffic, or improve air quality.
So what can? Well, the researchers found that the behaviour of motorists and the transport mode they choose depends very little on public transport fares. Rather than relying on free public transport to engineer the shift, a more effective way to reduce the number of people choosing to drive could be regulating car use.
Increasing the cost of parking, congestion charging, or increasing fuel taxes could all be combined with free fares to lower car demand.
How successful fare abolition is at tempting people to use buses and trams depends on the quality of the service. Cleaner and more reliable public transport must be a prerequisite for these schemes if buses and trams are to compete with the car, and making it part of a wider investment plan could have a big impact on the sustainability of transport.
Fare abolition can help to make public transport visible as a valid alternative to the car in cities where many residents might have forgotten about it over time, due to chronic underinvestment.
Free public transport may not be effective for making transport sustainable on its own, but it can have plenty of other benefits that make it worthwhile. It can be a progressive social policy, guaranteeing and improving access to public transport for diverse groups that might otherwise struggle to get around.
Enrica Papa is a Senior Lecturer in Transport Planning, University of Westminster
THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION
5 Cities That Are Leaders in Sustainable Public Transportation Initiatives
The World Economic Forum released its most recent Sustainable Cities Mobility Index, which ranks some of the globe’s largest metropolises based on both the viability of transport and its relative footprint.
The Index measures factors such as connectedness via public transport, including metros and buses, as well as pedestrian accessibility, ease of use by cyclists, among others. What unites each of the five cities featured here seems to be the overall strategy of incentivizing use of public transport, while disincentivizing the tendency to commute by automobile. In this way, public transportation systems trade on efficiency: by running frequently, integrating renewable energy sources, and maximizing often-limited physical space in the crowded cities, the public transport strategies of each of the cities listed have served to reduce car emissions significantly.
HONG KONG. Named number one on the sustainable mobility index, Hong Kong has constructed an impressive MTR metro system, which is responsible for 90% of residents’ daily journeys. Likewise, the cost of transport in Hong Kong has remained relatively low, permitting accessibility to all residents, further disincentivizing travel by car. In fact, due in large degree to the success of the public transportation system, less than 20% of residents of Hong Kong own a car.
ZURICH. At number two on the list, Zurich has demonstrated a great deal of success minimizing transportation by car, with just 37% of the population owning a car, as well as a little over a quarter of journeys measured occurring by car. The majority of public transportation in Zurich occurs by high-speed light rail, a system widely recognized to be one of the most energy- and space-efficient modes of public transport.
PARIS. In 2012, Paris pledged to reduce travel emissions by 60% within the most populated areas of its city, introducing more networks of pedestrian walkways and bike paths, incentivizing the use of bicycles and electric cars through two new city rental systems, as well as altering delivery systems such that it limits the number of diesel-fueled vehicles driving through the city each day. Parisian city officials have also been working to initiate regular “car-free” days, as well as other measures that promote alternative forms of transport.
SEOUL. Throughout the past decade, Seoul has pioneered a significant number of innovations that promote sustainable mobility. An inefficient highway system has been repurposed to become a large public park with an extensive network of pedestrian causeways. Moreover, Seoul has employed specified bus lanes, which have increased by nearly one million the number of citizens who use the public transport system each day, as opposed to driving. The significantly greater efficiency of public transportation, as well as the ease of access afforded to pedestrian traffic has cut down greatly on the number of citizens commuting by car, one of the most inefficient and least sustainable modes of travel.
PRAGUE. Prague has undertaken the “Tune Up Prague” initiative, just one of a series of sustainable transportation proposals enacted under the 2015 Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The “tune up” has focused on increasing foot and bicycle travel through the facilitation of pedestrian pathways. The proposal has also worked to bring accessible, sustainable transportation to all, seeking to bump up the amount of wheelchair-accessible metro stations by 23%, such that 95% of the city’s metro stations are wheelchair-accessible.
In integrating energy and space-efficient public transport with initiatives that promote pedestrian and cyclist travel, the five cities listed above have developed transportation networks that are both accessible and sustainable. Incentivizing public transport increases a city’s ability to experiment with “greener” travel, while simultaneously reducing automobile emissions. The ingenuity of each of the five metropolises provides a crucial example for other major cities, working towards a more sustainable, more connected future.
Hallie Griffiths
Hallie is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia studying Foreign Affairs and Spanish. After graduation, she hopes to apply her passion for travel and social action toward a career in intelligence and policy analysis. Outside of the classroom, she can be found, quite literally, outside: backpacking, rock climbing, or skiing with her friends.