Who rides the bus if it is free?

Many years ago, I heard about a city that made public transit free and ridership went up. This is a dream from a sustainability perspective. Make transit free, get people out of cars, decrease emissions, road wear, so much. Right? Fielbaum (2024) asked who rides the bus when it’s free and the findings show how complex this topic actually is.

Using a mathematical analysis based on previous studies, Fielbaum found that decreasing fare costs does increase ridership but that is only part of the equation. Both vehicle frequency and the spacing between stops influence who takes the bus. And this is important because if the goal is to reduce road congestion and greenhouse gas emissions then we need to focus on moving people out of cars onto the bus. This is opposed to  encouraging people who would have walked if transit cost more.

So what are the findings? Not surprisingly, increased frequency helps everyone get on the bus. But, to get people out of their cars, the transit has to have less stops. Yep, fewer stops or increased distance between stops is more likely to encourage car drivers to ride. Whereas closer stops encourage walkers not to walk.

This shows how important it is to take more than just fares in mind. Any place that is contemplating free transit needs to consider their goal for doing so. If the goal is reducing costs for both riders and operations then more stops is better according to Fielbaum’s analysis. But, if the goal is getting people out of cars then there may need to be a change in where stops are located and thus the total number of stops.