by Rustin Wright.
The money question.
There is a central part of all of this which I have not mentioned at all. A defining part. Funding.
The Daviesville Transit Citizens, in their research, discover a few things which shock them. And one is that fare collection is as much as a third of the cost of a transit system. And they found that in recent decades more and more people have brought up an interesting point. Drivers cost a large city billions to get their infrastructure. Frequently even including cheap or free parking downtown for residents, which can tie up as much as eight thousand dollars worth of real estate for one person to have one parking space. And school buses are large part of city budgets. And one drunk driving accident may cost fifty thousand dollars or more in city funds. While hundreds or even thousands of those would have been prevented if there had been safe, reliable, frequent service mass transit then and there.
So they made a decision. The fare on the Daviesville mass transit system would be…nothing. Riding is free. For anybody. A tax, which was fiercely unpopular in some quarters, was instituted on hotel rooms. Two dollars a day. Of which almost all would go to fund the estimated use of the system by visitors.
The classic argument against a no fee transit system is that this will encourage “excess” usage. After all, what if somebody were to just decide to ride the bus all day, back and forth, just because they have nothing better to do? But the same people who say that don’t ever seem to demand sanctions against people who aimlessly drive around a city all night when, say, recovering from a breakup. In fact, such behavior has long been considered romantic. Sexy.
Yes, when conventional systems have withdrawn fees ridership has not only increased but, in fact changed in character. When you’ve got an unlimited use pass taking the bus just two stops because there might be a rain shower or because those shopping bags are feeling a bit heavy suddenly look entirely reasonable.
Which, they realized, in fact was a form of accommodation to the disabled. And the simply fatigued.
Transit is a fundamental part of a city. Like streetlights, fire fighting, or schools. And as such, it shall be free.