From the fringes to the mainstream and back? The geography of pandemic-driven evolution of fare-free public transport in the United States

Abstract

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, transit agencies (TAs) across the United States (U.S.) faced a series of complex challenges. Mobility was suddenly and radically reduced as a result of sanitary lockdowns and widespread fear of public transport (PT) as a place of potential contagion. While plummeting number of passengers led to greatly reduced farebox revenues, feasible and affordable PT services had to be maintained to cater for “essential workers” and other persons authorised to travel, ensuring that transport operators and passengers travelled in a safe environment, maintaining physical distance. To achieve this, many urban TAs adopted fare-free public transport (FFPT). In this article we examine in-depth the surprising uptake of FFPT policy across the U.S. We build and analyse a new dataset based on information from nearly 400 urban TAs nationwide. Our primary aim is to identify where public transport became fare-free during the pandemic, exploring distribution of TAs that embraced FFPT. Our findings indicate that two-thirds of public TAs in urban areas opted to suspend fare collection amid the pandemic, with the analysis uncovering 73 cases of full FFPT, on top of the 29 that had existed before the pandemic. We reveal that the adoption of FFPT during the pandemic was not confined to specific types of localities. Rather, we observed that FFPT emerged in municipalities and counties that are diverse in terms of their demographic and economic characteristics. The areas with higher electoral support for the Democratic Party were more likely to abolish fares and maintain the fares suspended. Furthermore, larger TAs, particularly those with substantial vehicle fleet, demonstrated a greater inclination to resume fare collection. These findings highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of factors that underpinned the introduction of FFPT programmes, as well as their duration in response to the pandemic. In sum, the paper underscores the adaptability of public transport policies in unprecedented times, offering insights vital for future urban transport dynamics. Effectively, we trace how FFPT shifted from policy margins to the mainstream, having become a widely accepted practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the number of FFPT cases dropped significantly after the main waves of the pandemic, it remained higher than before the pandemic. As of October 31, 2021, as many as 40 TAs maintained fare-free operations.

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