I really dislike cars and they way they dominate our lives and environments.
I've talked to local government reps about schemes like this, and the challenge that's always thrown back at me is without pricing, how do you regulate demand?
Currently, you normally pay a scaled fee based on distance of journey for public transort. The minimum is quite high, and that prevents you from taking a short trip. With free, how do you stop people using a bus for very short trips meaning you need more vehicles that are then empty for long trips?
This isn't an exact reply to your question but ---
In London we have a 'fare hopper' system for the busses. £1.50 and you can take as many trips as you like within an hour. Or you could stay on the bus for the entire day (if you really wanted too) and just go round and round and it would only cost you the initial £1.50.
So the cost doesn't scale with your journey time/length, and if you're popping to the shops or somewhere nearish you can often make the return trip within the hour and you only get charged the first £1.50.
Very rarely is the distance travelled short enough that £1.50 feels like an over charge or lack of value.
I guess my point is, £1.50 isn't quite free - but it is low enough that it encourages use of busses. Once the initial fee is paid, within an hour any extra trips are free. It works brilliantly.
The issue of 'how do you discourage short trips' is a non-issue based on my experience of how the busses work in London, imo. It would be an interesting case study to put infront of those who think regulating demand is the blocker here.
£1.50 is about what it costs me here (the grim north) to go around 3 miles. If you only wanted to go one stop, you wouldn't pay £1.50, but if it was free you might take the bus. This is the response from the bus people when I've discussed it with them, how do you prevent that kind of activity? They can't service one stop riders.
People have moaned to me about London’s public transport. I thought it was excellent. I used a credit card and if it hit a level of usage where it would have been cheaper to have bought a day pass, it just charged that as a maximum. It was fast, trains and busses were frequent and seemed inexpensive relative to the value I got.
I were very impressed.
I've talked to local government reps about schemes like this, and the challenge that's always thrown back at me is without pricing, how do you regulate demand?
Currently, you normally pay a scaled fee based on distance of journey for public transort. The minimum is quite high, and that prevents you from taking a short trip. With free, how do you stop people using a bus for very short trips meaning you need more vehicles that are then empty for long trips?