Opinion Piece 2 - Free Public Transport

Thinking Ahead

Nutchey

March 22, 2020

In the height of a global pandemic, we are rethinking the way we do things. One of which is public transportation. Last week, the city of Victoria unanimously voted to make public transit free, along with other cities across North America (Bell, 2020). The reasoning was to allow passengers to load through the back doors of the bus, preventing the spread of COVID-19 by distancing bus drivers from passengers. Free transit has other positive effects, such as removing financial barriers for essential workers to get to their jobs. Since many workers our economy depends on such as grocery store workers and health care workers have low incomes, fare free public transit eliminates some of their financial burden. Extending free public transport after the pandemic would provide relief for those with low incomes hit hardest financially by the pandemic, and would help fight another crisis: the climate crisis.

Many cities around the world already have free public transit. These include Estonia’s capital Tallinn, municipalities in Poland, Sweden, France, in Chengdu in China, and several cities in the US (Hulten, 2019). According to Hulten (2019) fare-free public transport shifts from a system where “you pay because you use” towards paying “because the service is available for use to you.” This means that everyone pays proportionally through their taxes to subsidize public transit, making it more accessible for people with lower incomes. Taxpayer subsidies are not a new idea, in fact, taxpayers already subsidies road construction and maintenance, parking and tax breaks for car and fuel companies (Olsen, 2007).

Public transportation, such as busses, transport more people while taking up less of the road than a car, which typically carries one or two people. Free public transit also eliminates the significant costs of fare collection and combating fare evasion (Olsen, 2007). Incentivizing public transit by eliminating fares will in turn influence urban planning and city-life, making cities more sustainable (Hulten, 2019). Cities will be safer, less congested with cars and more walkable. This is good for our health and the health of the planet.

The Victoria city council is already in favor of fare-free public transit. Councillors see free public transit as a way to build ridership, get people out of their cars and fight climate change (Kines, 2019). The city already has a free youth bus pass pilot program in place for Victoria residents 18 and under (Crescenzi, 2020). The pilot is paid for through a combination of general revenues, and parking fares collected on Sundays (Crescenzi, 2020). Programs like this incentivize public transportation, moving us away from carbon heavy modes of transportation, such as cars. Councillor Ben Isitt said transportation accounts for more than half the region’s community-based carbon emissions, so shifting from private vehicles to public transit has the potential to make the biggest impact.

We need to frame the climate crisis the same way we view the COVID-19 pandemic. Both have the ability to devastate our society, and we need to prepare and take action while heeding science. Fare-free public transit is one way that we have a major impact in fighting the climate crisis, while simultaneously helping those in our society who need it the most.  

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References

Bell, J. (2020, March 19). Rides free, boarding at back doors on Greater Victoria buses. Times Colonist. https://www.timescolonist.com/covid-19/rides-free-boarding-at-back-doors-on-greater-victoria-buses-1.24101783

Crescenzi, N. (2020, January 28). Victoria councillors advocate once again for free youth transit passes regionally. Victoria News. https://www.vicnews.com/news/victoria-councillors-advocate-once-again-for-free-youth-transit-passes-regionally/

Hulten, M. v. (2019, August 14). Get on the bus: the case for free public transport. Apolitical. https://apolitical.co/en/solution_article/get-on-the-bus-the-case-for-free-public-transport

Kines, L. (2019, April 26). Public transit should be free, Victoria council says. Times Colonist. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/public-transit-should-be-free-victoria-council-says/

Olsen, D. (2007, July 5). 17 Reasons (or More) to Stop Charging People to Ride the Bus. The Tyee. https://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/07/05/NoFares1/