The Austin Experience

In 1989, the Capital Metro Board voted to adopt a fare-free concept for its bus system in Austin, Texas in an attempt to deal with a growing air pollution and road congestion problems in and around the Texas capital. Fare-free was advocated as an alternative to a proposed high-capacity light rail system. Many of the arguments were much the same as we hear today. Ridership showed a jump in 1989 and again in 1990, and the program was immediately hailed as a success. However, as it turned out, much of this increase was attributed to a surge of student passengers when the University of Texas turned over its transit operations to Capital Metro. After adjustment for normal growth and UT student passengers, the initial jump in ridership amounted to about 10%. This is consistent with the occasional ridership increases when Cap Metro forgives bus fares on 'Ozone Action Days' in Austin. That daily increase is about 10%.

What happened next can best be described in the words of Lyndon Henry, former Cap Metro Board member and a local transportation planner: "Overall, Capital Metro Board members and management regarded the fare-free program as a successful marketing experiment. However, as ridership began to level off, and Capital Metro faced staggering expenses for capacity expansion and operating costs, the fare-free experiment was abandoned. Projections indicated that substantial bus acquisitions and higher operating costs would be incurred to handle the increased ridership traffic, with greater portions of the agency revenues being tapped to pay for higher costs and the absence of fare revenues."

Not only were the operating costs a substantial drain, but many of the bus commuters were actually being driven away from the transit system. "Mothers would board the bus with their entire entourage of kids (it was cheaper than finding a babysitter). Vagrants would find buses a convenient place to loll around and snooze. Lots of schoolkids started playing hooky to ride buses for free all around the city."

After less than two years, in 1990, the experiment was in trouble: "Not only did the agency find more and more of its revenue stream diverted into operating costs, but transit drivers came close to insurrection as vagrants, truant school children, and other dubious categories of passengers flooded the system." Dealing with intoxicated passengers and rambunctious youths, many of the regular passengers had abandoned the buses. Captive riders, without alternate modes of transportation, were saving money but dealing with a worsening ride environment. Ridership leveled out and congestion was getting worse.

This story is far more believable than Collins' questionable assumptions and numbers assigned to its Seattle counterpart in the year 2000. The most recent plan ignores the ongoing operating cost of a fare-free system. In Austin it was described as 'staggering' and Cap Metro's farebox recovery was less than 15%. In Seattle, with passengers paying 20 to 25% of their way, the situation would be far worse. What is the realistic long-term scenario? Chuck Collins and SANE transit want us to take the Sound Transit capital and start paying huge annual expenses for a fare-free bus system which will work about like it did in Austin. After five years of running such a system and driving away some passengers, our agencies would have spent the money and free-bus service would be scrapped. We would be right back where we are now except with worse traffic, no light rail and no funding to build anything.