The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

92 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
Another strand of the argument in favor of free public transit
proceeds gradually from the attempt to speed up vehicle movements.
Instead of going directly to free fares, the first step is the
call for exact fare collection, as an intermediary. Owen’s statement
that “Requiring exact fare collection on the buses has also
introduced inconveniences that suggest eliminating fares altogether
as a logical next step,” 69 is a fair portrayal of this view.
These arguments, or ones like them, may have had some
influence, for the free-fare idea has become a reality. Seattle’s
“Magic Carpet” and Dayton’s “Downtown Area Short Hop”
(DASH) are described as “no fare-zones” if not “full-fledged freefare
transit programs.” 70 But, as in the case of Wilkes-Barre’s
experiment with free fares in the aftermath of the destruction of
Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the evidence for or against the program
is conceded, even by its proponents, to be inconclusive.
The free-fare arguments have not gone unchallenged. The
difficulty is that:
The present patrons of mass transportation are really a more-orless
captive group who cannot use an automobile for one reason
or another, (thus) their demand for transit service is relatively
inelastic. Cutting or eliminating the fare would not
increase ridership significantly, except perhaps for some odd
peak, short distance riding as a substitute for walking. 71
69Owen, The Accessible City, p. 47. Another reason for the exact fare is to
reduce robbery of the bus driver’s cash, since fares can go directly into a
locked box which the driver cannot open.
70Ibid., pp. 175–76. For a description of the Toledo experiment, see
Owen, The Metropolitan Transportation Problem, p. 121.
71George M. Smerk, “Subsidies for Urban Mass Transportation,” Land
Economics 41 (February 1965): 65. Scheiner and Starling (“The Political
Economy of Free-Fare Transit,” pp. 175–76) cite elasticities of I-34 for Denver
and I-90 for San Diego. Kraft and Domencich cited a study by the
Charles River Associates to the effect that “free transit might divert 13.810
of the trips to work from auto to public transit, but few or no shopping trips