Calgary Public Transit II

[joe498]

Perhaps this is a crazy idea but I think some compelling reasons exist for this concept which has proven effective in European countries:

Free-Fare Transit.


As with all good things, nothing can be entirely free what this does:

- Increase ridership
- Increase convenience
- More efficient loading / unloading
- Substantial increase in revenue (to be explained)

Primary reason our infrastructure lacks presently is the three following reasons:

- Lack of money
- Lack of ridership
- Outdated

Some options could be considered:

- The obvious one and everyone's favorite: increase in property tax.
- Municipal sales tax, possibly lower property tax. (Great because it draws on tourists and out of town commuters)
- Consider close to 500k dwellings, much larger base of revenue.

Some will argue that they would never want to subsidize transit because they would never use it. Others suggest toll roads could be effective.

- Commonly this anti-transit mentality is fueled by past 'experience' with public transit. Most things come down to money, more capital creates a better transit system which creates a better experience. Consider it like a bulk discount.

- A free fare system creates essentially 'tolled roads'. Less people are on the roads which makes more efficient use of present roads and creates much more capital to better develop existing and future roads / infrastructure. Anti-transit individuals are paying people to get out of single occupied vehicles and off roads. Transit users are paying people to stop driving so roads can be used for essential services.

- If you can prove a system is quicker and more effective by use of express bus lanes and LRT's, people will choose to use them. The increase in funding creates many other possibilities. Route-ahead could accelerate much more quickly.

- It is people own delusion that driving a car is "free". Many people can realistically spend $6k+ a year commuting by car. In addition, I can't recall a day commuting by car that consists of a collision free day. Deerfoot has multiple vehicle collisions daily.

As it stands, a public transit user already pays close to $1200 annually. Through a subsidized system, that money gets stretched throughout the entire household, while creating much more capital with a larger tax base funding public transit.