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Why (not) abolish fares? Exploring the global geography of fare-free public transport

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Abstract

Although the policy of abolishing fares in public transport—here referred to as “fare-free public transport” (FFPT)—exists in nearly 100 localities worldwide, it has not been thoroughly researched. To start filling this gap, I enhance the conceptual clarity about fare abolition. I start by providing a definition of FFPT, discussing its different forms, and introducing a distinction between “partial” FFPT and—the main focus of the paper—“full” FFPT. Next, I distinguish three perspectives on full FFPT—first, approaches that assess fare abolition primarily against its economic impact; second, analyses that look at its contribution to “sustainable” development; third, more critical arguments highlighting its politically transformative and socially just potential. Against the background of this debate I offer the most comprehensive inventory of full FFPT programmes to date, and begin to chart and examine their global geography. As a result, FFPT emerges as a policy that takes diverse forms and exists in diverse locations. Supported and contested by diverse rationales, it cannot be analysed as transport instrument alone.

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Notes

  1. I applied the following keywords (and their translations into respective languages listed above): ‘free transit’, ‘free public transport’, ‘zero-fare public transport’ and ‘fare-free public transport’. In English, the ‘transport*’ string was applied to capture both ‘transport’ and ‘transportation’, thus embracing European as well as North American contributions.

  2. They have included sites attempting to depict the worldwide landscape of FFPT (https://farefreepublictransport.com, https://www.facebook.com/freepublictransport, http://freepublictransit.org/, http://fptlib.blogspot.com.ee/, http://frepubtra.blogspot.com.ee/, www.tarifazero.org) as well as those focusing on particular global regions: Europe (http://farefreeeu.blogspot.com.ee/), Africa (http://farefreeafrica.blogspot.com.ee/), post-Soviet Europe and Asia (http://transport-vsem.livejournal.com/), and Australia (http://farefreeaustralia.blogspot.com.ee/). Finally, I have analysed country-specific sites, looking at FFPT from the perspective of countries such as Brazil (www.farefreebrazil.blogspot.com.ee), China (http://farefreechina.blogspot.com.ee/), India (http://farefreeindia.blogspot.com.ee/), New Zealand (http://farefreeindia.blogspot.com.ee/), Philippines (http://farefreephilippines.blogspot.com.ee/), Poland (www.facebook.com/bezplatnakomunikacjamiejskawpolsce) and Taiwan (http://farefreetaiwan.blogspot.com.ee/).

  3. Analysing FFPT programmes in the US, Volinski (2012) further notes that with the exception of discontinued programmes in Austin (TX), Denver (CO), and Mercer County (NJ), “most managers of fare-free transit systems did not regard disruptive passengers as a significant problem [and] bus operators prefer to deal with a few more disruptive passengers if it means that they do not have to deal with fare collection and fare disputes”.

  4. Philipson and Willis (1990) have nonetheless questioned to what extent fares constitute a veritable barrier to mobility. They have argued that FFPT could discriminate against citizens who do not use PT, and provide a free service not to users who need it the most, but to all citizens including the highly-mobile and rich. However, there is strong evidence that across urban contexts the use of PT is related to social class, as the rich use PT much less than the poor. PT could  therefore be argued to act as a policy of wealth distribution (Grengs 2005).

  5. While this review builds on a variety of sources cited in the section on “Conceptualising and defining different forms of FFPT”, it is nonetheless likely that some cases of full FFPT have not been detected by the author. Herein presented review should therefore be considered as a first step towards a comprehensive long-term mapping of all cases of fare abolition. Furthermore, in the course of writing and reviewing the article, several new full FFPT programmes have been reported. In France, municipalities that have zeroed fares include Dunkirk (a weekend-only programme expanded in September 2017 to a full FFPT system) and Villeneuve-sur-Lot (since 2018). In Sweden, fare-free PT was implemented in April 2018 in Fagersta and Sala. As many as 12 cases of full FFPT have been reported in Poland throughout 2017 (Ostrołęka) and 2018 (Bolesławiec, Chocianów, Czernica, Działdowo, Giżycko, Kostrzyn, Kórnik, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, Pobiedziska, Wągrowiec, Wieluń). Although the news about these newly-emergent FFPT cases requires careful verification—notably regarding the form of fare abolition—it is likely that the overall count of full FFPT cases worldwide has increased by January 2019 to 115 (of which 73 are located in Europe, 27 in North America, 11 in South America, 3 in Asia, and 1 in Australia).

  6. This increase is nonetheless significant when compared to figures presented by PT networks in nearby communities. PT operator in the Lane County (Oregon) (population of 351.715 in 2010) reported a + 0,28% increase of the number of passengers between 2011/12 and 2013/14 years, reaching 11.19 m trips per year (Lane Transit District 2018). In the same period of time, the PT network in Oregon’s capital, Salem (population of 154.637 in 2010), observed a − 1.21% decline, down to 3.32 m trips per year (Salem Area Mass Transit District 2012, 2014a, b).

  7. To put these figures into perspective, in the neighbouring city of Marseille (population of 869.815 in 2015) the increase of passengers at that time (2009–2014) amounted to + 9%, reaching 165,58 m trips per year (Observatoire des mobilités 2015). In Aix-en-Provence (population of 142.149 in 2014), the increase between 2009 and 2018 amounted to approximately + 8%, reaching 15 m trips annually (https://www.aixenbus.fr/lentreprise/).

  8. This increase is all the more significant in the context of a decrease of the number of bus passengers in the state of Rio de Janeiro (− 7.06%) and the city of Rio de Janeiro proper (− 7.43%) between 2014 and 2017 (https://www.fetranspor.com.br/mobilidade-urbana-setor-em-numeros).

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Acknowledgements

This paper has benefitted from critical conversations with a great deal of fellow researchers and friends—none of whom, needless to say, bears any responsibility for the arguments presented above. I want to thank Mathieu Van Criekingen and David Bassens, my doctoral supervisors, for their relentless trust in my ability, and interest in my work. I am indebted to Kobe Boussauw, Frédéric Dobruszkes, Anna Plyushteva, Stijn Oosterlynck and Tim Schwanen, for the attention they gave to my work, and their generous comments and critiques. I am further grateful to my interviewees in diverse sites of fare abolition, for opening their doors to a young and over-inquisitive scholar. Last, but most certainly not least, I want to thank Laura Martinez Alonso—for her kindness, wisdom, patience, and for her help with transforming my text into maps.

Funding

The funding was provided by Innoviris (BE) (Grant No. 2014 PRFB 16).

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  1. COSMOPOLIS Centre for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Wojciech Kębłowski

  2. Institut de Gestion de l’Environnement et d’Aménagement du Territoire (IGEAT), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Wojciech Kębłowski

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Existing cases of full FFPT
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Table 4 Discontinued cases of full FFPT
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Kębłowski, W. Why (not) abolish fares? Exploring the global geography of fare-free public transport. Transportation 47, 2807–2835 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-019-09986-6

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