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insufficient to use as a measure of what could be achieved if free public transport was introduced for a major city, Hasselt's administration had a different goal in mind.

Hasselt's aim wasn't to get cars off the road; it was about getting people into the city centre. A year after the free service was introduced, a survey showed that 18 percent of the passengers were former cyclists, 14 percent were former pedestrians and 23 percent were former motor vehicle drivers (and before you say it, yes, I know that doesn't add up to 100 percent - the rest were existing bus users). What this means is that Hasselt's exercise was more successful in stopping people from cycling or walking than getting cars off the road. Another shot in the foot for Hasselt is that its free bus service isn't even enough of an incentive to make it the dominant form of transport into and out of the city centre. And if it doesn't work for a city (town) the size of Hasselt, it is going to be much more difficult to make it successful in a city 10-15 times (or more) larger.

A free public transport system is also often talked about in the same social policy context as free public education and free public health care. I have already discussed the issues of convenience, flexibility and door to door travel times, but there is the added impost of the cost to the public purse. Melbourne, Victoria's capital city (an Australian example again - sorry) has a population of more than 4 million and briefly toyed with the idea in 2006. The cost was estimated at $340 million per year and would only go up. Add extra services, staff, security and so on and this is an even bigger drain on the public purse. It would also suffer from the paradox that the more successful it was, the more it would have cost taxpayers.

Is this a sensible investment of public money? If you weigh it up against investing an equivalent sum in enhancing the existing network and improving services, I would have to say, 'No'. Investing in improving public transport would certainly, given then Hasselt example, do more to increase patronage of public transport than making it free. Address the convenience, flexibility and door to door travel times and get those right, factors such as high frequency services during peak periods (aligning availability to need), coordinating timetables, specialised public transport lanes and affording public transport with traffic priority, and maintaining a conspicuous staff presence to satisfy the security concerns, and all you really need to do is price the services competitively against motor vehicle transport. This way, you reap the benefits of increased patronage reducing the cost to the public purse.

Learn more about this author, Jimmy Nightingale.
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