Should the world’s subway systems become free people movers, in order to help the environment and low-income folks, at essentially low costs? That’s the argument from economist Lucas Davis at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Based on his analysis of three large subway systems in Mexico for the Hass Energy Institute, Davis says, “I want to imagine a world where you don’t have to wait in line to buy a subway ticket, or help your kids through the turnstiles. I want to imagine a world where subways are free.”
But Davis’s vision has produced significant push back from readers who say his world would turn subways into fetid free housing for homeless people, as is already common on the subway system Davis uses, the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway in the San Francisco area. Jim Lazar of Olympia Washington, with the Regulatory Assistance Project, commented, “Our local transit system, in Olympia, Washington, went fare-free at the beginning of this year. Since then, their ridership has declined by 95%. That is not the result that this economist anticipated. I suspect an economist is less well equipped to explain this than a public health professional.”
Davis offers five reasons why he believes subways should be free, based on his work looking at the subways in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.
* Low marginal cost. Subways are expensive, but, once built, the costs are sunk. That means they are a fixed, not a marginal cost. They don’t change if there is more traffic.
* Low externalities. “When you use less energy, you create less negative energy-related externalities.” The electrified urban rail systems, he says, “are becoming cleaner as electricity becomes less carbon intensive.”
* Operational efficiencies. “No annoying turnstiles. No enforcement. It would be particularly nice for visiting other cities.”
* Redistribution and stimulus. “Putting resources into people’s pockets is particularly valuable today because it would act as economic stimulus.”
* Dynamic efficiencies. “The more riders in the system, the more you run the trains, and the shorter the wait times for all riders. If you make subways free, you’d increase ridership significantly, initiating this virtuous cycle.”
A bay-area commenter to the Davis blog said, “Making BART free might just turn the system into an even worse nightmare of homeless people asleep on the seats, begging for money, and not leaving the system to relieve themselves. If BART becomes more crowded it will become a vector for Covid-19 transmission. This could rapidly turn BART from a deteriorating system into one that most people try to avoid. And there is the issue that when something is given away it is not valued.”
What comes to mind is British pop singer Petula Clark’s 1967 hit, “Don’t Sleep in the Subway.”
The chorus:
Don’t sleep in the subway, darlin’
Don’t stand in the pouring rain
Don’t sleep in the subway, darlin’
The night is long
Forget your foolish pride
Nothing’s wrong
Now you’re beside me again