What are the benefits of a good public transport system?

The benefits of a good public transport system go well beyond the simple benefits that might be enjoyed by commuters.  In many cases, the benefits will be enjoyed right across any community where public transport is effective, well-organised, timely and widely used.  Encouraging use is the most important criteria that needs to be fulfilled in order for PT to be truly effective – that is, it needs to be a feasible option for all commuters.

One means of encouraging use is a free system – or a fare system that comes in at a very low cost to the user (in stark contrast to Brisbane’s current extremely expensive system).  While this may sound like a terminally flawed decision (especially if your transport authority decides to spend millions of dollars on putting new fleets on their roads, with little encouragement to use it, other than ‘hey look! we’ve got a new fleet and a new ticketing system!’) free transport systems operate in many cities across USA and Europe where in some cases, use has increased by as much as 13 times.

The benefit to the commuter is obvious, but who else stands to gain from such an initiative?  Here are some other potential advantages:

• No ticketing allows for faster boarding times, and faster timetabelling of services
• It allows low-income earners an affordable means of wider-reaching transportation
• It creates the impression of a ‘cost free’ option for transportation (which cars are often seen as being – and incorrectly so)

Beyond the low (or non-existent) costs, there are also advantages to be seen in:

• The possibility of increased users benefiting business on transport routes
• Surplus income improving spending within a community – supporting local business and the wider economy
• The redistribution of wealth
• Less congestion on roads – resulting in better health, lower health-care costs to governments, improved work efficiency (including decreases in lateness, increases in efficiency for road transportation of goods)
• Less oil reliance, which means less plundering of our earth
• Reconnecting people within a community through frequent use of shared space, and increased ability to interact with each other – both on and off public transport, and because of it.

A free or low-cost system may be the first step in increasing public transport patronage, but such initiatives need to be accompanied by initiatives that tie in with the aims previously mentioned.  Benefiting wholly from these aims (i.e: to boost local economies, improve productivity, reconnect communities, support and encourage wide use of public transport) a public transport system must also be well integrated, well maintained, well serviced and its benefits well investigated, researched and promoted.

There is a school of thought that argues strongly against a ‘free’ public transport system.  It is probably no coincidence however, that most who oppose a ‘free’ public transport system are conservative or right-wing leaning, neo-liberalists (take the age newspaper for example, who used the costs to the government of a free PT system for Melbourne as a negative article opposing it), who are also in opposition to the redistribution of wealth – one possibility that a cheaper public transport system has been seen to stimulate.  In essence a ‘fair’ system for the public.

That said – and the benefits of no ticketing have already been outlined – cost alone is certainly not enough of an initiative to achieve the wide-reaching benefits as outlined here.  Without proper planning, management, infrastructure, integration and organisation low costs only, may well not be sufficient incentive to bring enough users to use public transport.

While it may seem tenuous to suggest that Melbourne and Sydney, and their businesses, culture and tourism leave Brisbane’s behind because their public transportation and public transport system and infrastructure is superior – including, but not limited to bikelanes, fare structure and general service -  (as well as London, Singapore and Vancouver – to name only a few good examples of thriving cities, with good public transportation) Brisbane surely has a lot to gain from improving its PT, and its patronage.