Motorists unlikely to be driven from cars by free transport

That a Green Minister for Transport would oppose free public transport appears an anathema. It was no surprise therefore that reactions ranged from confusion to outrage when Eamon Ryan said abolishing fares would result in “reductions in active travel and an increased level of unnecessary trips”.

Surely environmental logic dictates that public transport equals good, private transport equals bad. Therefore the more attractive you make public transport the more people will use it instead of cars.

The problem is, according to research published by the National Transport Authority this week, making public transport free does not make it more attractive to drivers.

The report by consultancy Ernst and Young found that, where it had been made free, public transport use had increased by almost 22 per cent, driven by a reduction in walking of 7 per cent, cycling by 13 per cent, but only a reduction of 1 per cent in car trips.

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The report analysed academic literature, case studies of free schemes, transport modelling and surveys of the Irish travelling public.

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Unsurprisingly, in rural Ireland, badly served by public transport, 80 per cent of journeys are made by car, a figure which drops to 70 per cent in towns and suburbs. However, even in cities almost 62 per cent of trips are made by car, the report found. Nearly two-thirds of car journeys are single-occupancy journeys, and the majority of these are less than 15 minutes in duration. Some 95 per cent of people who are predominantly drivers, and 90 per cent of their passengers, do not generally use other forms of transport.

When asked why they didn’t use public transport just under 4 per cent said it was too expensive. About half said they “didn’t need to”, between a fifth and a quarter said there was no service either near where they lived or where they needed to get to, while between 9 and 15 per cent said it was inconvenient.

“Overall, the evidence on Irish people’s travel behaviour suggests that it may be difficult to encourage car users to switch modes through free-fare travel alone,” the report said. “Improved public transport services and possibly restrictions or added charges on car use may be required to encourage users to change their travel behaviour.”

Case studies indicated where free public transport was considered a success it was accompanied by a substantial improvement in public transport capacity, or car restrictions, and even then it didn’t always result in a substantial decrease in car use.

“The share that does come from car drivers correlates less strongly with fare reductions than with increases in fuel prices, restrictions on parking and road usage, or increases in public transport quality in terms of speed, frequency and coverage,” the report found.

If environmental sustainability is the goal, free fares don’t achieve that, as they are more likely to displace people from more sustainable modes such as walking and cycling, than from driving.

The report concludes: “Fare-free travel would increase public transport demand and provide a financial benefit to users, but this would not be achieved through a substantial reduction in car use, according to multiple sources of evidence.”