The Chapel Hill free busses work really well, to the point that when I went even 8 miles away to places where the busses cost money, it was a culture shock. I think the keys are:
The ridership is all broke college students, so there isn’t much of a broke:poorly behaved correlation. This isn’t evidence that such a correlation exists elsewhere, just that it’s not in chapel hill.
The majority of rides take place on short, frequent, and packed routes between classes and housing. Taking time for everyone to beep a pass while getting on would actually make the commute meaningfully longer
The majority of cost of the system is in long, sparsely ridden busses that make living without a car comfortable and feasible. There is a disconnect between where revenue would come from with fares, and where the expenses are that make the system work.
The town is absolutely, brutally strapped for parking. This is basically a good thing on a grand scale, but also obviously heinously annoying day to day. It also means that the town is currently getting a good deal paying for free busses instead of having to build parking decks and wider roads, instead of this benefit living in some hypothetical beautiful future.
The Chapel Hill free busses work really well, to the point that when I went even 8 miles away to places where the busses cost money, it was a culture shock. I think the keys are:
The ridership is all broke college students, so there isn’t much of a broke:poorly behaved correlation. This isn’t evidence that such a correlation exists elsewhere, just that it’s not in chapel hill.
The majority of rides take place on short, frequent, and packed routes between classes and housing. Taking time for everyone to beep a pass while getting on would actually make the commute meaningfully longer
The majority of cost of the system is in long, sparsely ridden busses that make living without a car comfortable and feasible. There is a disconnect between where revenue would come from with fares, and where the expenses are that make the system work.
The town is absolutely, brutally strapped for parking. This is basically a good thing on a grand scale, but also obviously heinously annoying day to day. It also means that the town is currently getting a good deal paying for free busses instead of having to build parking decks and wider roads, instead of this benefit living in some hypothetical beautiful future.