Ticketless Public Transport - For the New Mobility Agenda

Ticketless Public Transport

For the New Mobility Agenda

Prepared by Elliot Fishman

Institute for Sensible Transport

15^th June 2006

Preamble

The way people pay for their transport has a powerful influence on their transport choice. The car has benefited from this situation more than other modes as it has greater ‘one off’ costs. The car owner’s perception is that once the cost of the car, insurance and registration has been paid, it becomes ‘cheaper’ per trip. All these costs remain the same, regardless of use. Public transport has smaller, pay-as-you-go costs. This results in excessive car use. This is one of the many reasons why 30% of car trips in US, Canadian and Australian cities are under 3km. Once the large, ‘one off’ costs have been paid for, the car is used for almost all trips, even very short ones. Equalising this distortion of payment may go some way to reducing car use and increasing the attractiveness of public transport.

How It Would Work

A ticketless public transport system would work by replacing payment at the point of access (tickets) with a public transport levy. This would function in a similar way to Australia’s Medicare levy. A small percentage of a city’s resident’s income would be collected. This goes into a fund to produce a similar amount of money to that raised by the existing ticket system. The money saved by not having to operate and administer a ticket system would also be fed into the fund to boost services, catering for the additional demand created by the elimination of tickets.

Why would this be better?

· Fairer, more equitable. Most public transport systems operate a ‘zoned’ ticket system. Passengers pay more depending on the number of zones they wish to travel. This discriminates against those living in outer zones, as they pay the most for an average trip despite the fact that they are likely to earn least, compared to residents of the inner zones.

· Encourage use. Use would be encouraged by the knowledge that the ticket has in effect been paid for, so why not use it? Just as a buffet meal often results in eating a lot, a public transport levy would result in generous usage. Unlike over eating, there is little downside on the individual or community level to active ‘consumption’ of public transport. In the contrary, increased public transport use benefits the city by reducing traffic congestion, fuel costs, and pollution.

· Easier, simpler system. With the ticket system removed, the public transport system would become more accessible, especially to those unfamiliar with it. This is particular important for US and Australian cities where a significant proportion of the population are not accustomed to regular public transport use. Moreover, it would be very attractive to tourists, as they would not have to familiarise themselves with a foreign ticketing system.

· Better for everyone, not just those who use it. It is often argued that those truly reliant upon their motor vehicles such as trades people would be paying for something that would not benefit them. Even if they do not use the public transport system for their work, it will still provide considerable benefit to them. This is due to the fact that a great many other people will use it, reducing congestion. Cumulatively, congestion costs heavy road users billions each year. To give a practical example, if a plumber usually performed 6 jobs at different sites per day, he/she could expect to complete around 8-10 jobs given the reduction in traffic congestion. This increase in productive work would far outweigh the costs of the levy on personal income.

What Need’s To Be Investigated

Before assessing whether a ticketless system would benefit your city, a number of important questions need to be answered. These are summarized in Box 1 below.

Box 1

Note: “P/T” stands for Public Transport

“GHG” stands for Greenhouse Gas

Of the areas of interest listed in Box 1, the following are particularly important preliminary areas of investigation:

1. What increase in public transport modal share can be expected under a ticketless system?

2. What does the current ticket system cost?

To assess the merits of a ticketless system, it is important to determine how much the current public transport ticketing system costs. This ought to be quite broad. For instance, it could include the loss in property value to retail space within the station. This occurs as a consequence of the ticket system, which restricts access to ticket holders only.

Transport places many costs on the community. These include greenhouse gas emissions, congestion, petrol expenditure and sedentary lifestyle disease. Since a ticketless system will reduce car use by boosting public transport patronage, it is important to capture the savings of a ticketless system – in terms of greenhouse reduction, lower congestion, less petrol consumption and reduced sedentary lifestyle disease. Once a clear picture of these benefits has been developed, government will be well placed to decide if a ticketless public transport system will be of net benefit for their city.

Any feedback is welcome.

Elliot Fishman

Director

Institute for Sensible Transport

info@sensibletransport.org.au

Mob: 0438 547 450