Public transport has long served as a major mode of transport in cities around the world due to its low-cost nature. However, public transport is usually complimentary to private modes of transport such as cars and motorbikes. The question of whether cities should evolve further and make public transport completely free has become a topic of debate. I believe that though public transport should be subsidised and kept as a widely-accessible and affordable option, making it free of charge would be economically and practically infeasible.
To begin with, if public transport were to be free, the burden of operational costs would fall solely on municipalities and city councils which may increase expenditures for these bodies and mean funding for other areas such as health facilities, recreational centres and amenities would have to be reduced. This would make transport cheaper at the potential the cost of overall quality of life in these cities . Further more, free public transport would incentivise a larger proportion of the population to start using public transport – a proportion larger than existing infrastructure can accommdate, leading to problems such as delays and overcrowding among others. Therefore public transport should not be made free.
There are however, clear benefits free public transport provides, such as less traffic which would reduce commute times on the road as well as being more environmentally-friendly. Free public transport may persuade more people to opt out of driving which would result in less cars on the road daily. This has the potential to prevent traffic jams as well as reduce carbon emissions from cars leading to a lower carbon footprint. Despite this sounding good on paper, I believe implementing a system of free public transport would not be sustainable as it would result in economic costs that in my opinion are not worth the shorter commute times and other options such as electric cars would be more environmentally efficient.
In conclusion, I largely disagree with the notion that public transport should be provided at no cost due to financial and infrastructural impracticality and inability for free public transport systems to be self-sufficient in the long term.