Cities that choose to offer public transit for free are multiplying in Quebec — and once on board, few decide to disembark. Free fuel appeals to users and seems self-evident in the era of the climate emergency and gasoline at $1.90 per litre. Far from being reduced to an ecological utopia, it has the wind in its sails and is rooted today in more than 120 cities around the world.
In Beauharnois, Candiac, Carignan, Chambly, La Prairie, Richelieu or Sainte-Julie, the search for small change to pay for admission to the bus is long over. Public transit is free at all times, anywhere in the territory.
When you offer free, people who abandon the car in favor of public transit represent between 25 and 50% of new users. The transfer of the modal share is minimal. Free access mainly cannibalizes active transport, such as walking and cycling.
In the Capitale-Nationale region, Boischatel is the first municipality to have followed suit. Since the summer of 2019, its 8,200 residents can jump on any bus without paying a cent.
“Previously, we counted 3000 trips per month, explains the mayor, Benoît Bouchard. Since it’s free, it has increased by 50%: on average, we have 4500 monthly. »
Some families, certifies the elected official, have even abandoned a car: the parents no longer having to play taxi to move their children, their second car slept most of the time in the parking lot.
The MRC de Côte-de-Beaupré offers a year-round shuttle, again free, which criss-crosses its territory and goes as far as Parliament Hill and Laval University. “In our mind, explains the prefect, Pierre Lefrançois, it is certain that we must offer a public transport service to help transport our young people. If in addition, it can remove cars, so much the better. »
Saint-Jérôme is the latest city to have adopted free admission. Since October and for a period of one year, its 80,000 inhabitants can take all the routes that criss-cross its territory free of charge. Cost of the manoeuvre: nearly $90,000 per month.
“Since the implementation of the free service in October, underlines the councilor and president of the commission of the transport of Saint-Jérôme Jacques Bouchard, the ridership increased by 33% on the line 100 and by 41% on the line 102 by compared to that of 2019.” At this rate, the milestone of 600,000 trips will easily be exceeded by the end of the year.
Beloeil is also thinking of imitating its sisters in the near future. In Quebec, cities are growing in appetite for free public transit, which contributes, among other things, to filling buses that often run empty outside rush hour.
“It’s like the Hygrade sausage, illustrates the mayor of Boischatel, convinced of the merits of the measure. More people eat them because they are fresher, and they are fresher because more people eat them. »
The big city challenge
Greater social mobility, less pollution and urban densification are among the arguments raised by supporters of free public transport around the world. However, the abolition of user fees does not necessarily constitute a panacea capable of remedying the ills of our time.
“When you offer free, people who abandon the car in favor of public transit represent between 25 and 50% of new users, indicates the assistant professor of the National School of Public Administration Fanny Tremblay-Racicot. The transfer of the modal share is minimal. Free access mainly cannibalizes active transport, such as walking and cycling. »
Another obstacle to overcome: free education still comes up against a slope that it is struggling to climb, namely the one that leads to the big cities. The implementation of free public transit faces the challenge of funding, explains the director general of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah Doyon.
“Before the pandemic, user fees provided about 33% of the revenue of transit companies in the province,” she explains.
Free access would thus create a recurring shortfall of $80 million in the budget of the Réseau de transport de la Capitale, in Quebec City. The hole would be even greater in that of the STM, in Montreal: according to a study carried out by IRIS in 2017, foregoing user fees would deprive the company of $620 million – not to mention additional operating costs. which would inevitably fall in the face of an increase in traffic.
“There is nothing free in life, even free things,” emphasizes Fanny Tremblay-Racicot. At the end of the day, someone always has to pay. »
Who’s the bill?
Several models fund free. The Estonian capital, Tallinn, has chosen to make public transport free for its 400,000 inhabitants from 2013. Bill: 12 million dollars each year. Ten years later, properties have increased in value, and 50,000 people have chosen to settle in the city. The authorities estimate that the influx of new residents brings 38 million dollars into its coffers annually: for them, it is therefore an excellent return on investment.
In France, where at least 35 of the 120 cities that have opted for free transport in the world are located, it is the companies that partly pay for public transport.
Each company with 11 or more employees located near a service must contribute, through a tax deducted from the payroll, to the kitty devoted to public transport. The contribution is significant: in 2013, it amounted to 7 billion euros, or 44% of national funding.
In Seattle, on the American West Coast, the contribution of companies is not compulsory as in France. On the other hand, “employers are strongly encouraged to buy transit passes for their employees,” notes Professor Tremblay-Racicot. A measure that has been a resounding success, since “today, only 25% of people take their car to get to work in the city center”.
The model could be imported here, since Quebec already provides a significant — and little known — tax incentive for employers. They “are entitled, writes Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, to a deduction corresponding to double the expense incurred with respect to public transit passes paid or reimbursed to an employee to enable him to go to the work. »
However, there is a downside, according to Sarah Doyon, of Trajectoire Québec: to convince people to abandon the car in favor of public transit, it is not enough to abolish prices and improve services. It is also necessary to reduce the attractiveness of the car.
“It is not a question of seeing the automobile as the enemy to be shot down, explains Mr.me Doyon, but rather to rethink the way to get around the city center as efficiently as possible. When we stop at that, the automobile never wins. It often moves a single person when a bus can transport fifty. »
Partial free, real success
Partial free approaches have also taken shape in Quebec. Saint-Hyacinthe, for example, makes public transit free outside peak hours. Quebec and Trois-Rivières are considering imitating Gatineau and Calgary by adopting social pricing, which provides more affordable prices for poor passengers.
Since 2004, the Université de Sherbrooke has offered its 16,000 students the possibility of using public transit for free in exchange for a contribution of less than $35 per term. Montreal, for its part, has been transporting children free of charge since last summer. Mayor Valérie Plante has promised to extend the measure to seniors in 2023.
“Things are changing timidly, but Quebec does not yet give enough value to these services, concludes Fanny Tremblay-Racicot. We continue to value the car, asphalt and individualism rather than collective modes of transport. »