An article on fare-free public transport

[pne]

(via conuly)

An article on Fare-Free Public Transit, and why it can work (or, as I understand the article, why it can be better and more economical than paid public transit).

Comments

[bride.livejournal.com]

Except that the success stories they're citing as examples are tiny, culturally homogenous communities. There's not a lot of diversity and everyone knows everyone else.

Whidby Island is a fantastic vacation spot though. It's quaint and idyllic and I can totally see how discipline can be kept in a place like that.

But I'm not so sure you could do that in, say, Greater Vancouver or San Francisco Bay Area.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Where does discipline come in? (Honest question; perhaps it's obvious but I didn't see it.)

As I understand it, two of their major points were that (a) the cost of collecting fares is often fairly large compared to the money you actually make and (b) raising fares results in lower numbers of riders, meaning that your total income is likely to go down, so if you need more money, higher prices are not a useful instrument.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Interesting link, thanks!