We call on the Minister of Transport, Michael Wood, to implement free public transport for Community Service Card holders, full- and part-time tertiary students, and under-25s nationwide.
We want to see this fully funded by central government in Budget 2022 and free fares beginning in 2023.
We also acknowledge the need for this government to reduce fares for all other passengers and to increase the reach, frequency and quality of services in underserved areas.
Why is this important?
New Zealand should be a place where everyone can afford public transport to stay connected, enjoy our regions, and travel in a way that’s kind to the environment.
But with the high cost of public transport, many people can only afford to travel by private car, causing congestion and harmful carbon emissions. Some people don’t travel at all, and their wellbeing and communities suffer as a result.
The solution is for the government to fund free fares for public transport, starting with low-income groups and under-25s.
The case has never been stronger. New Zealand needs to take bold actions to reduce emissions and improve equity; we also need to address rising living costs and pandemic pressures that are pushing people into poverty. Free fares is a solution. Now is the moment!
The Free Fares petition has hit 2000 signatures in less than one week. Fantastic work getting it out there!
We'd love to double that. Could you send an email blast or newsletter to your members? Text you can use is below.
We've also set an outrageous goal of getting 100 individual councilors to support the campaign... before 18 November.There are 25 on board so far, plus several councils will soon vote on motions of support.
Can you help us? Do you know any individual local city or district councilors that you could ask to support the campaign? That involves adding their name to a public list that will be used on the freefares.nz website and in public media (we'll send out a press release on 18 November). We will also keep them updated about the campaign. If they want to get further involved, they are most welcome. Here's a template you can use to reach out to councilors. Direct them to this sign up form, or send questions to freefaresnz@gmail.com.
Thanks again for your support. A reminder we have weekly strategy meetings, 7pmWednesdays on Zoom, for anyone wanting to join. This week's link is here.
Here's text to you can adapt for email newsletters:
Join the call for free fares.Our organisation has teamed up with dozens of others around Aotearoa to support the Free Fares campaign (freefares.nz). Together we are calling on Transport Minister Michael Wood to make public transportFREEfor all under-25s, tertiary students and Community Service Card holders, so that more people can afford climate-friendly options. Everyone should be able to afford public transport, but the high cost leaves many people reliant on private cars or disconnected from their community. Free fares is part of the solution! Sign the petition here: our.actionstation.org.nz/p/freefares.
Conrad Landin explores the idea of a universal free ride. New Internationalist 5 November 2021
Official delegates visiting Glasgow for the UN Climate Conference in November will receive a free pass for buses, trains and the subway. But once they look around at ordinary punters, they will see that the residents of Scotland’s largest city juggle a daily cacophony of individual paper tickets and separate smart-cards.
Urban and regional transit is as much a part of everyday life as education and housing. When we can move around with ease, we don’t just benefit as individuals – we benefit as a society. It seems like it would be a win-win to make public transport free for users and pay for it out of general taxation.
At first the idea might seem unworkable, but we just need to cast our eyes to the cities, regions and, in one case, an entire small country, that have already implemented it. The Estonian capital of Tallinn has gone part of the way there. The city’s 438,000 residents pay a small fee for a pass that gives them free access to public transport, but tourists still pay full whack. In one sense this supports the city’s transport budget, but it also means there is still a need for expensive ticketing infrastructure and enforcement regimes. Wouldn’t it be simpler to eliminate ticketing altogether and instead levy a tourist tax on overnight stays?
Although public transport was already heavily subsidized in Luxembourg, from 2020 ministers decided to scrap fares and ticket checks on trains, trams and buses in a move that cost just $44 million. Transport is not only free to the grand duchy’s 600,000 residents, but also its many incoming commuting workers and tourists. ‘The objective is to stop the deepening gap between rich and poor,’ François Bausch, the Green politician in charge of the programme, said at the time.
Dunkirk has been another high-profile testbed for fare-free travel – and no, this isn’t a bad joke about World War Two’s Operation Dynamo. In 2018 the town, (population 91,000) revived its public transport system by granting free travel on five express bus lines, each running at a 10-minute frequency. It had the desired result: a survey of bus passengers showed ridership in Dunkirk spiked the next year, with passenger numbers doubling at weekends.
In 2019, Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced free bus and metro rides for women as ‘a gift to our sisters’. In 2012 a woman was brutally gang-raped and murdered on a private bus in Delhi. Politicians concluded that having more women on public transport would improve safety and so decided to address the fact that women were far less likely to be travelling on buses and trains in the first place. The fact that this scheme has been rolled out in region with a 16.9 million population is an encouraging sign that free transport isn’t only workable for small cities in the West.
There is, however, a thorny issue with free travel – the potential for bosses to use it as an opportunity to cut staffing. In Luxembourg, such concerns prompted transport unions to oppose free travel. Given that many transport workers are primarily focused on revenue collection and enforcement, and that corporations have a proven record of using smart ticketing and automatic barriers to cut costs, this argument can’t be dismissed out of hand.
Passenger advocacy groups should instead work with transport unions to make a dual demand for free urban transport, alongside legal staffing guarantees which would make public transport safer and more accessible. Rail ticket inspectors should receive full safety training, and trains should never run with just one ‘safety-critical’ worker on board – a longstanding demand of UK rail unions concerned over driver-only operation. Ticket clerks and bus workers who currently perform spot-checks should be trained to provide assistance to elderly and disabled passengers, and indeed to anyone who requires help on board.
Free travel is not a panacea for inequality, and needs to go hand in hand with measures to make our urban settlements fit for walking and cycling. But as well as the potential for reducing car usage, it could help make public transport safe, secure and accessible for all.
What was once seen as an utopian, marginal and fringe idea is increasingly being embraced by mainstream politicians in communities across North America and around the world.
Photo public domain via Wikimedia Commons
In another step forward for the global fare free transit movement, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico has decided to implement a one-year zero fare trial policy on all its municipal bus routes. With a population in excess of 550,000 this makes the city one of the largest in the world to embrace fare free public transit.
Albuquerque joins large cities like Tallinn, Estonia and Kansas City, Missouri that either have full free public transit or a version of it.
In the case of Kansas City, the City Council began to start rolling out zero fare transit a few years ago starting with students, veterans and some social service users. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the city decided to make fares free for everyone, at least temporarily. For now this will be extended until the end of 2022.
Interestingly, this decision meant that Kansas City did not see anywhere near the decline in public transit ridership that most major cities did as a result of the pandemic.
As I have noted before, the struggle for free transit and against car culture is critically important in this era where the fight against climate change and inequality are coming so sharply into focus.
While many -- understandably given the seriousness of the climate emergency -- primarily view the need for free fares through an environmental lens, they can also play a critical role in promoting social inclusion and working to end the marginalization of urban communities and neighbourhoods.
As I have argued before, free transit is an obvious way to incorporate neighbourhoods with high poverty rates or population densities that are detached from the overall economic and cultural life of the city into the fabric of city life as a whole.
Museums, art galleries, cultural or political events, parks and waterfronts and so many other essential parts of the urban experience would be there to visit at no cost in fares.
Beyond opening up a city to neighbourhoods excluded from full participation in it, the reverse is also true. It would open up neighbourhoods that few visit to new possibilities to host cultural or artistic events and to become destinations. This can have profound potential economic and social benefits.
Christopher Ramirez of the Albuquerque community group Together 4 Brothers that had advocated for the free transit policy notes this when he says "Zero fares isn't about getting people on buses, it's about where the buses take people. It's about access to education, it's about access to employment, access to recreation."
Further:
Baruch Compost is the program coordinator for the organization. He said coming from a low-income household, growing up without a car and also struggling to afford the bus made it difficult to go to school and even get a job.
"One of the questions that is often asked in interviews is, 'do you have reliable transportation?'" Compost said. "Paying for the bus might not seem like much for some folks, but it really does add up."
Community partners also benefit from zero fares, including the mayor's Climate Action Task Force.
"They recognize that zero fares would go a long way to impact air pollution and climate justice here in the City of Albuquerque," Ramirez said. "If we can get more people out of their cars and into buses, we know that's gonna have another positive impact on our city."
Ramirez said even if you don't ride the bus, you probably know or even rely on someone who does.
"This is an important part of the story. You may not benefit from zero fares, maybe you have a car, you don't have a bus route near your house, but guess what, the person that works at your grocery store, the person that works at the day care, the person that works at your favorite fast-food restaurant where you get your favorite breakfast burrito, they're all gonna benefit," Ramirez said.
What was once seen as an utopian, marginal and fringe idea is increasingly being embraced by mainstream politicians in communities across North America and around the world. The left needs to make fare free public transit a central part of its struggle against climate change and inequality and for social inclusion and economic justice.
Laura Shantz’s youngest child turns six next year, the age cutoff for
free bus and train rides in Ottawa. This means a roundtrip ride on
Ottawa’s transit system will cost the mother and her two children $15.
During a city council Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting last month, Shantz shared her concerns over Ottawa’s proposed 2.5% transit fare increase.
“People are saying, I want free transit, I want this, I want that,”
Mayor Jim Watson said later in the meeting, responding to Shantz’s and
others’ concerns. “Well I’m sorry but someone has to pay for it.”
A growing movement of activists in cities across Canada agrees that
someone should indeed pay for it, but not the poorest. While
acknowledging the costs of building transit infrastructure, they argue
it must not fall on marginalized members of society, who often rely on
public transit to access work and essential services. The Free Public
Transit movement believes fares can be eliminated entirely and funded by
progressive taxation measures that shift the burden to corporations and
the most wealthy.
They’re already clocking small victories. Earlier this year the City of Victoria introduced a free transit pass for youth 18 and under. The City of Halifax made free transit passes
available to anyone receiving income assistance. And in March 2020, at
the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, cities across Canada temporarily
abolished transit fares for essential workers.
Free public transit is often framed as an expensive, impractical
proposition. But advocates say dependency on personal vehicles is even
more expensive and impractical. Expanded, efficient, and free public
transit could radically reduce the need for cars. Relying on a car to
engage with city life commonly costs upwards of $10,000 a year. Any tax increase associated with free public transit would pale in comparison.
Free Transit Ottawa campaign launch in January 2020.
Ottawa: Building an inclusive community
On top of their financial burden, single-occupancy vehicles create
more congested cities. When people ride one or two at a time, rather
than 30 at a time in a bus or train, cities become less accessible for
everyone, as car traffic trickles down to affect transit routes.
Josh McEvoy, an organizer with Free Transit Ottawa (FTO), views
better transit design as a critical step towards a more equitable city.
“Whether to work, engage in political activity, attend events, or
participate in leisure activities, mobility is key,” he says. “But
without a robust, accessible, and affordable (ideally free) transit
system, partaking in those things and the cultural life of the city
becomes dependent on car ownership.”
FTO believes public transportation should be a free service, like a
library. Before the pandemic, the group canvassed at transit stations
and encouraged commuters to sign petitions. Organizers invited community
members to imagine a city where neighborhoods are connected by a web of
transit lines.
Recently, they began seeking out like-minded organizations and
service providers in the city to help propel the movement forward.
Together with the Somerset West Community Health Centre, the groups are
calling on the City of Ottawa to make transit free for social assistance
recipients.
The work draws on the health centre’s recent Building Community Together
report, which features consultations with over 500 residents living in
Ottawa’s West Centretown and advocates for affordable, reliable transit
as “a necessary component of an inclusive community.”
This model of advocacy, bridging community consultation with urban development, has also been adopted by organizers in Toronto.
TTCriders launch a report calling for lower fares and service improvements.
Toronto: Fare enforcement a barrier to dignity and access
In June 2021, TTCriders, a transit advocacy organization, released its report, Pandemic Recovery Fare Policies for a Thriving Transit System.
Facilitating focus groups known as “transit story circles,” organizers
held meetings in English, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, and Mandarin,
soliciting perspectives on transit accessibility and potential changes
to transit design.
Jasmine Mohamed, who serves on the TTCriders board, emphasizes the
importance of bolstering transit users’ facilitation and organizing
skills: “TTCriders has been pressing hard to ensure the member base is
organizing and building the political power of transit users so they can
influence [Toronto Transit Commission] decisions.”
On September 15, TTCriders will deliver to the Toronto Transit
Commission (TTC) a list of recommendations based on their report in an
attempt to influence the TTC’s 5-Year Fare Policy.
Toronto transit riders reported unaffordable fares and infrequent,
crowded buses as their top concerns. Many described racist fare
enforcement as another barrier to access. Less than one percent of
Toronto residents are Indigenous, but they make up three percent of TTC enforcement incidents. Black people are 2.2 times more likely to be stopped by TTC enforcement officers than the general population.
Free transit, organizers argue, would eliminate the need for fare
evasion officers and make public transit safer for people of colour,
specifically Black and Indigenous passengers.
Beyond reducing unnecessary police interventions, some see free and
expanded transit as part of an avenue towards greater economic equity
and climate justice.
Free Transit Edmonton sees free and expanded transit at the core of a Green New Deal.
Edmonton: Framing free transit as climate justice
In Alberta, Climate Justice Edmonton presented Edmonton City Council
with a petition—signed by 1800 community members—demanding the city
freeze its proposed 25-cent fare increase. The Free Transit Edmonton
campaign’s efforts were successful. In April, City Council voted 12-to-1 to freeze the fare increase.
Free Transit Edmonton promotes climate justice on a municipal level,
advocating for infrastructure that puts people, rather than cars, first.
Organizer Sol Bobier describes this shift in urban planning: “If you
build an expansion to the Anthony Henday, the ring road in Edmonton,
you’re going to have an increase in cars; you’re not going to have an
increase in public transit users, cyclists, and pedestrians.”
Climate Justice Edmonton started its free transit campaign to promote a just transition
away from fossil fuels and towards greener modes of transportation. It
envisions a city that encourages public transit and swaps car-centric
infrastructure, like parking lots and freeways, for pedestrian bays,
paved bike lanes, and easy-to-access bus terminals.
“People need to go to work, to important doctor’s appointments, and
there’s some things you just can’t be late to. You need a form of
transportation that’s going to get you there,” says Bobier.
“By making transit reliable, good, free, we’re lowering the barriers
to using it and being able to rely on it in a way that doesn’t leave you
stranded in the worst time possible.”
A growing global movement
Free public transit is not a new idea — cities around the world
have fostered healthier, greener and more accessible communities by
implementing fare-free transportation. In 2013, Tallinn, Estonia made public transportation free. Luxembourg also offers free public transportation for all residents, in hopes the country can mitigate traffic congestion and create less polluted urban centers.
Last January, Washington’s state capital, Olympia, introduced a zero-fare demonstration project. Along with eliminating fares, Olympia’s Intercity Transit increased the bus fleet by 51 percent and hired 130 new transit workers. In its first month of operations, weekend ridership increased 50
percent compared to the previous year, while weekday ridership rose by
15 percent. This pilot project will span five years, giving the city a
chance to “measure the impacts of moving to zero-fare.” More study is
needed to evaluate the economic impacts of free transit, but increased
ridership points to positive outcomes for local businesses.
The blueprint for free public transit exists, and the environmental,
social, and economic benefits are clear. A growing movement says it’s
time for Canada to hop on board.
